Quick Change Workholding

Manufacturing technology is essential for the creation of all modern products and contributes
£6.7tr to the global economy; UK manufacturing makes up 11% of UK GVA, 54% of UK
exports, and directly employs 2.6M people. Machine tools are used across all engineering
industries and indirectly by almost every sector. An integral part of the machine tools are the
cutting tools and workholding equipment, which are vital and essential parts of the production
process.
Rarely is more than 35% of time available on a machine tool used for productive work. The
majority of productive time ‘lost’ on machine tooling is due to setting up and securing
toolholders, and/or securing and locating accurately the workpiece (workholding).
The development of the Coromant Capto quick change tooling enabled the productive time
available on machine tools to dramatically increase from 35% to 45%. Craftsman Tools Ltd
was instrumental in this step change and we now wish to use our experience and skills to
introduce another innovative step change into the manufacturing industry by designing and
developing the Quick Change Workholding.
The Quick Change Workholding will dramatically reduce the time between jobs, whilst
increasing productivity. This innovative new concept would replace the usual clamps,
hydraulic and other complex tightening fixtures. The key innovations are a workholding
easily clamped in place by ¼ turn of an Allen key; ‘off-line’ workpieces set up accurately, and
interchangeable fixturing from one machine to another reducing costs and time.
The first aim will be to determine the universal fixtures required for turning, milling and
grinding. The second aim will be to design a functional basic prototype that will prove the
feasibility of manufacturing a quick change workholding cost effectively.
The Quick Change Workholding provides a production efficiency advantage in a highly
competitive global market.