Clamping Housing Driving Ring for Play-Free Zero-Point Clamping
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing zero point clamping systems for machine tools are costly to manufacture and assemble, prone to misalignment, and result in error tolerances during clamping, leading to time-consuming remeasurements and increased costs due to the lack of gearing arrangements between the driving ring and locking pins.
Innovation Solution
A driving ring with a control surface featuring at least two different pitches is used, along with U-shaped pockets and guide grooves, to enable high-speed and clamping stroke movements of locking pins without play, ensuring accurate and efficient clamping of workpieces with reduced assembly complexity and cost.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If projections are provided on the driving ring for force or shape-locking active connection with locking pins, then reliable connection is achieved, but manufacturing cost and assembly time increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts the complex projection structure from the driving ring and replaces it with a simpler groove structure. The locking pins have projections that engage with grooves in the driving ring, reversing which component has the active feature. This reduces manufacturing tolerances and assembly complexity while maintaining reliable force and shape-locking connection.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of providing projections on the driving ring that engage with grooves in the locking pins, the invention inverts the design: the locking pins have projections and the driving ring has grooves. This inversion simplifies the driving ring manufacturing and reduces the number of tight tolerance interfaces required.
2Manufacturing precision
If multiple interfaces with tight tolerance bands are used for projections, then accurate positioning is achieved, but manufacturing cost and assembly time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The invention removes the requirement for tight tolerance projections on the driving ring and replaces them with grooves that accommodate projections on the locking pins. This reduces the number of tight tolerance features from multiple projection interfaces to groove-projection engagements, significantly easing manufacturing while maintaining positioning accuracy.
3Device complexity
If rotational movements of the driving ring are converted directly to radial movements of locking pins without gearing, then simple structure is achieved, but misalignment and play occur during rotation
Solution Approach 1:
The invention introduces grooves in the driving ring as intermediary elements that guide the projections on the locking pins. These grooves act as mediators between the rotational movement of the driving ring and the radial movement of the locking pins, ensuring accurate conversion without play or misalignment while maintaining structural simplicity.
4Ease of operation
If driving connection has play, then easier assembly is achieved, but error tolerances arise during clamping leading to remeasurements
Solution Approach 1:
The invention uses a simple groove-projection driving connection that is inexpensive to manufacture and assemble, replacing complex projection-based systems. While simple, the groove geometry is designed to eliminate play, providing accurate clamping positions without requiring remeasurements, thus achieving both ease of assembly and precision.
Data Source
AI summary
A fixture to hold a workpiece comprising, among other things, a housing having a passage opening into which a clamping pin is inserted for supporting the workpiece; a driving ring mounted in the housing; and at least two locking pins facing the axis of the opening, mounted radially in the housing so as to be able to move, wherein the clamping pin is locked in the opening of the housing when the locking pins are moved toward the axis, and released from the passage opening of the housing when the locking pins are moved away from axis; wherein, a control surface with at least two different pitches is worked onto an inside of the driving ring, and a contact surface is worked onto an inner wall of the driving ring so as to permit movement of the locking pins by rotation of the driving ring.