Switch to a smart automation solution

Whatever type of job shop you are, familiar problems such as small batch sizes, more and more part variants, including competition growing bigger and bigger and always less time, can be experienced all the time.

Workholding manufacturer Hainbuch is aware of all these issues and have come up with an automation solution that makes a job shop more productive, more independent and more flexible. The company makes sure that no production process problem is unsolvable.

So Hainbuch was looking for a smart, minimalist automation solution that would make work easier. This did not have to be a robot, it should be executed independently by the machine operator. The solution: A stocking and changing station placed on the workpiece feeder belt of a vertical lathe.

To setup, the spindle passes with the chuck over the combination of clamping head and end-stop to be changed and it is swapped completely reliably within seconds by a pneumatic pulse. The workpiece to be clamped is then directly grabbed from the next changing station and clamped. Because of this design, there is no need for extra automation.

However, the machine can become amazingly flexible. Using a clamp check with air sensing the efficiency can be increased even further. This simple practical solution is suitable for a variety of machines because the changing station can be installed directly beside an industrial robot or gantry. A genuine high tech example that you would expect from Hainbuch and if you imagine that this is the only one available from think again, this was just one of several of their automation solutions.

Smart solution
• Optimal set-up changing clamping parts [clamping heads and end-stops]
• Ideal for lowering batch sizes or multiple part variants
• Operator free production over three shifts
• No expert set-up needed
• Low upgrade cost
• Low investment compared to conventional automation

How it works:
• Clamping head and end-stop use a clever clutch mechanism
• The changing station sets up the clamping head and end-stop together
using a pulse trigger
• No special alignment, workholding is ready to use