VIDEO: TOOLING UP – The Best Vise for Your 5-Axis Mill

Narrator: This video is brought to you by Jergens, manufacturing efficiency. If you're looking for real world insights, tips from leading industry experts, the latest trends in products and technology, you've come to the right place. From MSC Industrial Supply, this is Tooling Up.

TONI NEARY: Hi, and thanks for joining us on Tooling Up. I'm your host, Toni Neary, and we're thrilled you're here with us on the MSC YouTube channel. If you're new, don't forget to click subscribe so you don't miss any upcoming episodes. And don't forget to hit that like button. Today, I am thrilled to be filming at Jergens here in Cleveland, which is actually where my manufacturing journey started just over 18 years ago.

And I'm thrilled to have Vice President Matt Schron and Product Manager Mike Antos here. Thanks for joining me today, guys.

MATT SCHRON: Pleasure.

TONI NEARY: So one of the interesting things about Jergens is the family history. And I think Matt you're the perfect person to tell us a little bit about the Jergens story.

MATT SCHRON: Yeah. So we were founded in 1942 during World War II. So we were making airplane seat components for the wartime efforts. After the war, many people got into the job shop environment, making parts for everybody else. At that time, Jergens decided to make standard components for all of those companies and that kind of stuff, selling them the standard components. So we have grown from that point to be one of the world leaders in standard components, helping to support everybody from the aerospace market, the Defense Department, medical, automotive, you know, and even the job shops as well, too.

TONI NEARY: And I think something fascinating is you are a fourth generation for the Schron family here running the business. And I think innovation has come through all of those different generations. Tell me a little bit about the changes you've seen in the business since you've been here.

MATT SCHRON: Yeah, we started making standard components, standard stuff, and we are trying to be the world's best standard components in our tagline 20 years ago was “the standard components with the highest standards” and we had the most standard components. As businesses changed, manufacturing companies had to change as well with it too, right? So they had to sit down there and evolve.

So now they went from hopefully fixturing and set ups into how can they change over faster. So that's when we came up with one of the first quick-change fixturing designs, Ball Lock, which we're still using today, which helps you change a fixture over from what used to be a 45-50 minutes setup on a job. We're doing it now in a matter of five to 10 minutes.

So we have other options to quick change and set up our customers’ products as well too. And I think today we're continuing to innovate. We're doing things with automation, automation setups. So I think we're always trying to understand where the customer’s at, what their needs are and try to adapt to those changes as well, too.

TONI NEARY: And I think innovation leads to longevity in your workforce. And Mike, I know that you've been here for more than a minute, right? Tell us a little bit about your journey here at Jergens when you started, how long you've been there and what your role looks like today?

MIKE ANTOS: Yeah, I actually started at Jergens when I was going to college down the road at Cleveland State University. That was 18 years ago. So I was I was fortunate enough to graduate from there with an engineering degree and stay on at Jergens. And it's really been great. I've had experience here doing design engineering, applications engineering, supporting our sales staff, working some back in the shop with our quality departments.

So it's been great so far.

TONI NEARY: And workholding is one of the staples of the Jergens’ lines. Tell us a little bit about the evolution that you've seen with the products in your role.

MIKE ANTOS: Yeah, so with workholding. You know, we're kind of fitting the needs as typically we're providing products that are going into machining centers. So, you know, as machining centers evolve, you know, we're designing and developing products, custom solutions, to fit those needs.

TONI NEARY: And I think we're seeing so much adoption with five axis out in the marketplace. Tell us a little difference about your workholding devices for five axis versus some of the other ones out there.

MIKE ANTOS: Yeah. So five axis, just like any of the solutions we try to provide with the workholding, you know, the quick change is a big aspect of that. So we're providing whether it's a combination of our standard products or standard products incorporated with some of our custom products, you know, quick change, whether it be our quick lock system or our basic grid system or our Ball Lock system, and then incorporating that with our five axis self centering vise as the top tooling component that's really become the core of our five axis line.

TONI NEARY: And time is money. So I would imagine these processes and these products are going to save time and money, when you're looking at transitions and changing out for different components people are machining?

MIKE ANTOS: Yeah. So one of the big features with this face is the jaws are very quick change. So just in a matter of seconds without any tools, I can change out the jaws on this vise. I can change out. So our standard jaws, the serrated jaw here you see for typically doing the first op work where you want to penetrate under the material, have a very aggressive type of holding.

But in a matter of seconds, you can either reverse these jaws to hold a larger or smaller work piece or go to a machine with a soft jaw. In some older designs of five axis vises, it was quite difficult to recenter the jaws if you ever had to, if you had a crash or you had to disassemble a device for maintenance or change out a part. With these vises, you can recenter the opening of the jaws, usually in a matter of a minute or two.

It's very simple. In most cases, you do not have to even take the vise off of your machine. It can be done right on the machine.

TONI NEARY: All right, Mike, so you're an engineer. This is your product. I imagine that you probably want to get into some of the specifics about what makes this product so amazing.

MIKE ANTOS: Yeah. So one of the big things with any vises is jaw lift and how you can minimize that. So with these vises we talked about the quick-change jaws, but also these feature a very aggressive pulldown mechanism on the jaw interface and how it connects to the jaw carrier. So with this vise in most cases you're going to see very minimal if not no lift.

So that's a big thing. Also, we have some patented technology with the lead screw and how it connects inside the vise actually allowing a little bit of float in the vertical direction that actually helps us in combination with that jaw connection to minimize jaw lift and also create just a more efficient clamping action within the vise.

TONI NEARY: That's fantastic. And I know Matt, you touched on it earlier, but looking at how you serve your customers, I mean, everybody has different products. They have different technology. What's the real differentiator with Jergens?

MATT SCHRON: Yeah, I think that's what really separates us. I mean, I think I saw a study one time that was talking about products and services and people almost 80% of the time are buying their products based on the services that they're being provided, not necessarily the product that they're actually buying. And I believe that's what really separates Jergens. We made significant investments in the last few years in trying to invest in what we're seeing, the change in the marketplace.

So a lot of shops have started to eliminate tool rooms and design fixtures on people. So what we've really done is invest in those areas to help support those customers. So we have a full, a custom designed build facility in California that can do fixture build for you guys. But in addition to that, we've got technical engineers that are out there, here to support you.

We work with, you know, MSC very closely with their cutting tool specialists in the field as well too to design solutions for customers, helping the fixturing layout, support, showing them exactly what they do. And then those guys, I refer to those as by napkin guys. They're the guys that go out there. They're in front of a customer drawing the designs and that kind of stuff, and then the concept people.

Then they bring it back to our application team. We've got a group of about eight application engineers here just doing designs and drawings for these fixtures. So when you wanted to take one of these five axis vises Mike's talking about and put it into a solution and design a fixture, whether it be a tombstone, whether it be a sub plate, whether it be a, you know, a five axis riser solution.

We have this application in here to help you design it, optimize it and make it more efficient so you can make more parts quicker, faster, and hopefully make your company more money.

TONI NEARY: All right. Well, Matt and Mike, I want to thank you so much for taking the time today. This has been amazing and it's great to see the product innovations. Thank you so much.

MATT SCHRON: Appreciate it. Thank you.

TONI NEARY: I hope you enjoyed our conversation here with Matt and Mike as much as I did to see the innovative solutions that Jergens is developing for five axis machining. You can always reach out to your MSC metalworking specialist, and you can also go to the website at https://www.mscdirect.com/products/jergens?rdrct=Jergens. Thank you so much and we'll see you next time on Tooling Up.

Narrator: Want more insights and ideas to improve the efficiency and productivity of your operations? Check out the MSC Tooling Up video playlist to hear tips that can take your company to the next level and subscribe to our channel so you won't miss out.