The invention relates to a tool chucking fixture, having a tool holder that receives a tool and is intended for insertion into a receptacle of a tool carrier, in particular of a Lathe, in which the tool holder and the tool carrier have Dearing faces associated with one another and devices for securing the tool holder to the tool carrier, and positioning means for positionally precise adjustment of the tool holder relative to the receiving bore are provided.
For instance, in CNC turning centers with movable tool carriers in the form of tool turret disks and the like, tool holders are used to receive turning tools, drilling tools, milling tools, or other tools required for manufacture, which are inserted into suitable receptacles of the tool carrier. Automatic tool changing systems are often used, which depending on the progress of machining either insert tool holders with preadjusted tools or replace same.
Tool holders with a cylindrical shaft are standardized under German Industrial Standard DIN 69880. They can be arranged for fixed or revolving tools. It is also known to provide the tool holder with a securing flange, which when the tool holder is inserted into the receptacle rests on the tool carrier and is firmly screwed to it, so that the tool holder is rigidly joined to the tool carrier. For positional fixation of the tool holder on the tool carrier, an additional fitted keyway, usually provided centrally to the center of the receiving bore, is also used in the industry, with a corresponding fitting key engaging it on the shaft of the tool holder. Often, there is also a fixation bore, radially spaced apart from the axis of the receiving bore, on the tool carrier or the tool holder, into which bore a fitting pin is inserted, which in particular fixes the angular position of the tool holder relative to the tool carrier.
The fundamental problem of this or similar known ways of positionally fixing a tool holder that is inserted by its cylindrical shaft into a receiving bore of the tool carrier is that production variations in the tool holder and the tool carrier and the fitting play, required for changing the tool holder, between the shaft and the wall of the receiving bore cause a certain positional imprecision of the machining tool inserted into the tool holder. This positional imprecision is especially problematic with respect to the angular position of tools located radially to the axis of the receiving bore, because for relatively long tools, they lead to considerable imprecision in machining. In CNC (Computerized Numerical Control) turning centers designed for high machining precision especially, the positional precision of the tool holder relative to the tool carrier does not as a rule meet what is required of it, unless additional provisions are taken. Readjustment of the tool holder inserted into the receptacle is therefore usually necessary. This is also true for tool holders that are made without a shaft and are simply screwed firmly or otherwise secured to the tool carrier.
Such readjustments of tool holders on the machine, however, are time-consuming and increase so-called setup times considerably. Moreover, the tool holders cannot be preadjusted in such a way that they can be changed with the requisite (very low) positional tolerance. This becomes an especially great disadvantage in automatic tool changing systems.
To provide some help here, tool chucking fixtures have already become known in the industry in which provisions are made on the tool holder in the tool carrier to enable adjusting the tool holder relative to the associated receiving bore of the tool carrier, in particular with a precise angular position, by way of adjusting elements. For this purpose, it is known to mount a bar, which has a V-shaped; dimensionally accurate recess, on the housing of the tool holder using an adjusting gauge and to screw an associated counterpart firmly to the turret disk, with the counterpart engaging the recess of the V-strip when the tool holder is inserted. Other adjusting elements are embodied in the form of an eccentric bolt, which is inserted into a bore of the tool carrier that is spaced radially apart from the axis of the receiving bore, and which protrudes into a corresponding bore or receptacle of the tool holder. The eccentric bolt can also be embodied with spread-type clamping and can for instance be adjusted via a wrench attachment or by adjusting screws that are accessible from outside and engage the eccentric bolt next to its axis.
All of these devices for adjusting the angular position of a tool holder relative to the tool carrier have certain disadvantages in use, either because they are not simple enough and sensitive enough to use or because they make undesirably high demands in terms of the attentiveness of the workers, or they require provisions to be made in the tool carrier, and especially the turret disk and/or the tool holder, which for instance additional space and are problematic for that reason.
The object of the invention is therefore to create a tool chucking fixture with a tool holder, which receives a tool and is intended for insertion into a receptacle of a tool carrier, for instance a turret disk, that makes it possible without disruptive or excessively complicated provisions on the tool carrier and without undesirably high effort of use to assure close-tolerance positional fixation of the tool holder relative to the tool carrier, so that the tool holder in particular can be preadjusted or precalibrated and that a play-free transmission of the angular position is assured.
This and other objects are attained in accordance with one aspect of the invention directed to a tool chucking fixture, having a tool holder that receives a tool and is intended for insertion into a receptacle of a tool carrier, in particular of a lathe, in which the tool holder and the tool carrier have bearing faces associated with one another and devices for securing the tool holder to the tool carrier, and positioning means for positionally precise adjustment of the tool holder relative to the receiving bore are provided. The tool holder (3) has at least two adjusting elements (26), guided without play and spaced apart from one another. At least two contact points (48, 49), associated with the 25 adjusting elements, are embodied on the tool carrier (1), at which contact points, when the tool holder (3) is inserted into the receptacle (4, 5), its adjusting elements rest with a precise fit. The adjusting means (38, etc.) on the tool holder (3) are associated with the adjusting elements (26), by which adjusting means the adjusting elements are adjustable in the sense of the dimensionally precise adjustment of the angular position and/or axial position of the tool holder (3) relative to the axis of the receptacle.
At least two spaced-apart adjusting elements guided without play are provided on the tool holder, while at least two contact points associated with these adjusting elements are embodied on the tool carrier. When the tool holder is inserted in the receptacle, its adjusting elements rest with precise fit on the contact points. The adjusting elements are assigned adjusting means on the tool holder, by which they are adjustable in the sense of dimensionally precise adjustment of the angular position and/or axial position of the tool holder with respect to the axis of the receptacle. The contact points and/or the adjusting elements can be embodied in their parts that cooperate with the contact points in such a way that a two-dimensional or area type contact results, or that a two-dimensional/one-dimensional or area/linear contact results.
In a preferred embodiment, the contact points are embodied on a wall of at least one receiving groove of the tool carrier, which as a rule is located in the region of the bearing face for the tool holder. A receiving groove of this kind can be manufactured precisely using comparatively simple means; it does not hinder the function of the tool carrier, nor does it require any additional space. In a simple version, it is rectangular in cross section, but other cross-sectional profiles such as V-shaped profiles are fundamentally also possible; the adjusting elements are designed, in their parts that rest on a groove wall, to suit the groove shape. In grooves with parallel walls, they are advantageously embodied as precise-fit sliding blocks, while in the case of V-shaped grooves, for instance, a prismatic or wedge-shaped design on the adjusting elements in their engagement region with the groove wall can be considered.
Even with two adjusting elements that rest with a precise fit, spaced apart from one another, on contact points, for instance in a receiving groove of the tool carrier, a fixation of the angular position of the tool holder that can be reproduced with very close tolerances is assured. Depending on the requirements of a given intended use, it is also possible for more than two spaced-apart adjusting elements to be provided on the tool carrier, distributed annularly about the axis of the tool holder. For instance, two intersecting receiving grooves can be present in the tool carrier, whose point of intersection, in the case of a tool holder with a shaft and receptacle in the form of a bore, is located in regions of the receiving bore. Four adjusting elements are present on the tool carrier, resulting in four spaced-apart contact points. It is thus possible with high accuracy to adjust or correct not only the angular position of the tool holder relative to the tool carrier but also the location of the axis of the tool holder relative to the axis of the receptacle (lateral axial offset). Especially in applications in which the only need is to adjust or correct the axial offset, a single circular receiving groove in the tool carrier could suffice.
Once the tool holder has been inserted into the receptacle of the tool carrier, its adjusting elements rest with a certain prestressing on the contact points. In a preferred embodiment, this is achieved by prestressing means, which press adjusting elements, guided displaceably in guides of the tool carrier, against contact points without play.
To that end, in a corresponding embodiment of the tool holder with a shaft, the tool holder can be embodied with precentering, to which end precentering means are associated with the shaft of the tool holder; by these precentering means, at least part of the shaft is capable of being pressed elastically on one side, radially against the wall of the receiving bore receiving it. This creates especially simple structural conditions, because these precentering or prestressing means are embodied by an elastic toroidal ring, which as a rule is present anyway for sealing off the shaft from the wall of the receiving bore and which here is received on a bearing face that is eccentric to the longitudinal axis of the shaft, the bearing face as a rule being the bottom of the groove of the shaft for the toroidal ring. With the thus-achieved contact of the suitably preadjusted adjusting element with the contact point, for instance on the wall of the receiving groove, the fitting play between the adjusting element and the walls of the 15 receiving groove is no longer significant, thus minimizing angular deviations in tool holder changing.
The novel tool chucking fixture allows a play-free transmission of the angular position of the tool holder with a defined prestressing; if necessary, an axial offset between the tool holder and the receptacle can also be taken into account. The fixture can be produced with high precision at reasonable expense, because the receiving grooves, for instance, can be machined very precisely into the tool carrier without requiring excessive effort and expense. The adjusting elements present on the tool holder allow accurate adjustment (in the range below 0.01 mm), which in cooperation with the contact points provided on the tool carrier make it possible to compensate perfectly for production variations.
Finally, the tool holder can be preadjusted perfectly on a receptacle corresponding to the tool carrier. On a tool change, replicable conditions are obtained with respect to the positional accuracy, which in practice means for instance that for a tool tip of a transversely fastened tool, which is located at a distance of 150 mm from the axis or the receiving bore, a replicable accuracy with a tolerance of +0.01 mm is attainable.
The tool chucking fixture shown in
Finally, a connection line for supplying coolant or lubricant is also suggested at 23. An annular groove 24 is provided in the shaft portion 7, and an elastic toroidal ring (0-ring) 25 is provided in the groove, which once the tool holder has been inserted seals off the shaft 6 from the receiving bore 4.
According to the invention, four adjusting elements in the form of sliding blocks 26 are provided in the housing 8 of the tool holder 3, distributed uniformly annularly around the axis 27 of the shaft 6. The sliding blocks 26 are each located in pairs on two diameters 28, 29 perpendicular to one another, as shown in
On the side opposite the wedgelike face 34, a recess 40 is provided in the guide 30 of the sliding block 26, and a second cup spring assembly 41 is inserted into this recess, braced on a spring plate 42 guided displaceably in the recess 40 and pressed against the straight inner wall 43 of the guide 31, which wall is located opposite the wedgelike face 34. The guide part 30 is recessed in the regions at 44 located inside the guide 31 and facing toward the wedgelike face 34, so that the guide part 30 has a certain transverse mobility inside the guide 31.
The adjusting screw 38, the guide part 30 with the wedgelike face 34, and the pressure plate 32, together with the cup spring assemblies 36, 41 and the spring plate 42, form adjusting means for the sliding block 26. By rotation of the adjusting screw 38, the guide part 30, which with its wedgelike face 34 is pressed in prestressed fashion against the oblique face 33 of the pressure plate 32 and thus nonrotatably retained in the guide 31 by the spring plate 42 and the cup spring assembly 41, is displaced along with the sliding block 26 in the longitudinal direction “x” (
As can be seen particularly from
The dimensions of the precision sliding blocks 26 are 10 adapted to the width of the receiving grooves 45, 46 in such a way that the sliding blocks 26, when the tool holder 3 is mounted on the tool carrier, have only a slight fitting play, on the order of magnitude of about 0.02 mm.
Once the tool holder 3 has been mounted on the tool carrier 1, the sliding blocks 26 rest, with the bearing face 49 opposite the pressure plate 32, with a precise fit on the side wall 48 of the groove 45, or the corresponding side wall 49 of the groove 46 (
In practice, the tool holders 3 are preadjusted on a receptacle corresponding to the tool carrier 1. This preadjustment is exactly replicable, so that the angular position and any axial offset can be transmitted without play once the tool holder 3 is inserted into the receptacle of the tool carrier 1.
Instead of the sliding blocks 26 of rectangular cross section described, which are manufactured as precision sliding blocks, for instance with an 18H6 fit, differently embodied adjusting elements can also be used, which for instance produce a linear contact at the contact point on the side walls 48, 49 of the grooves. The contact points also need not be provided on side walls of the grooves. In principle, the receiving grooves can also be located on indentations, protrusions, or other suitable construction elements, depending on the given construction of the tool carrier. If all that is needed is to calibrate to the angular position of the tool holder, then as a rule two contact points and one receiving groove 45 or 46 are sufficient, while in cases where only an axial offset between the shaft 6 and the receiving bore 4 has to be calibrated or corrected, then even one circular receiving groove or receiving indentation concentric with the axis 50 of the receiving bore 4 might suffice, as indicated by dashed lines at 51 in
In
An exact calibration of the angular position of the tool holder relative to the tool carrier is necessary 5 particularly whenever the tool holder receives tools that: extend crosswise to the shaft axis and have a considerable length. One example of this is shown in
As seen particularly from
The tool length suggested at 59 in
The tool chucking fixture described is suitable not merely for tool holders 3, 3a with driven tools. It can also be used for any kind of tool holders. Thus
Alternatively, the flangelike housing part 61 could also be replaced with its own flange joined to the housing 8b, and this applies to all the tool holders 3, 3a, 3b.