VIDEO: TechChat - powRgrip: How it Works

Hello and welcome to REGO-FIX TechChat. My name is David McHenry. I am the Engineering and Technical Manager here at REGO-FIX USA. Today, let's talk about powRgrip®. Let's talk about how it works. The powRgrip tool holding system is a high-precision tool holding system. Anytime you're looking for high precision or high productivity that is where you should think about the powRgrip System.

The main question we always get is “Well, how exactly does it work?” Well let's go through it. Just like our ER system, the powRgrip System is composed of a tool holder, a collet, and a cutting tool. All cutting tool shanks should be h6 diameter. They simply just slide right into the collet. The collet and the ID of the tool holder have a 1 to 100 taper. It's a very shallow self-locking taper. On the edge of each collet I have a square shoulder and I have a ground face on the front of each tool holder. That gives me a positive stopping point and it also allows me to use the built-in backup screw to easily preset my tool length. The assembly is very simple. Put your cutting tool on the collet, take your collet, put in the tool holder, then you can go to your automatic machine or your hand pump for simple assembly.

In this case, we're going to use the automatic machine. Open the door. Now each tool holder has this groove on it and that groove matches up with a lip on the insert inside the machine. Simply put the tool holder on the lip. What you're going to see here is the die is up above the collet and it's going to come down and press it in with up to 9 tons of force. When you're ready close the door and latch it and press the press in button. This assembly takes between 7 and 10 seconds and in this case we are applying six tons of force for our PG25 collet. It's done. I can now remove the tool holder. I can go straight to my hand to my tooling cart or my CNC machine for operation.

To remove it I'm going to lower the press to its bottom position. Simply going to press the prep pull out button. The press is now lowered to its bottom position and again I put the tool back on the lip inside the insert, close the door and press the pull out button. Most common question we get at this point is how many times can I do this? Well, REGO-FIX is the only manufacturer that offers a 20,000 cycle guarantee on our TIR and tool life for the powRgrip System. I can now remove the tool from the machine. I can change my cutting tool or I can change my collet as needed. The simplicity of the REGO-FIX powRgrip System. Not much out there that is this easy to use, this accurate or has this amount of clamping force.

What are the basic features of the powRgrip System that will benefit you, the end user? Well, three micron TIR, that's one one-tenth TIR at three times D. That gives you superior tool life and excellent part-dimensional characteristics. High vibration damping, we've covered that in another TechChat, so please look that up for a good explanation of exactly what vibration damping is.

You can assemble a tool in under 10 seconds. We just demonstrated that it's very quick and very easy to use. Long tool life… over 20,000 cycles guaranteed for our collet TIR and clamping force. We also offer a secure grip system for anti-pull out. Should you have an application that is super aggressive, we have an option for an anti-pull out. On top of that, we have the ability to preset the tool. Most of our collets come with a set screw built into them that allows you to accurately preset your z-axis, making setup much easier for your machines.

Not only do we have those basic features, but when you consider the different material shanks that are out there in the industry, everything from carbide, cobalt, high speed steel, ceramics, well unlike other systems powRgrip System really doesn't care what the material of the shank is as long as it's incompressible we can hold on to it with that h6 shank. Makes powRgrip very, very versatile. We also have diameters down to 0.2 millimeters for the micro-machining industry and we currently max out at one inch maximum diameter for PG32. If you have questions on any of our features or any of the available products, please reach out to the REGO-FIX technical team. We're here to answer any questions you might have. My name is David McHenry, this is REGO-FIX TechChat.