Flexible Workholding for 5-Axis Machines
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TestimonialsAt Raptor, we love to hear how our products made your manufacturing job run more efficiently. If you have a story about how Raptor helped your business, please let us know. It's through your feedback that we are able to improve and innovate. Raptor Fixtures are Great for Turning, TooWe used fixture RWP-001 (1.5” Dovetail Fixture) in a CNC Lathe and it was a success. The part held firm in the fixture with ZERO movement. Clamps were Hand Tightened. We first tested a long overhang rectangular aluminum block measuring 6.00” X 2.00” X 3.50” running at 3,000 RPMs (without cutting any material). There was no movement so we decided to machine our part. Then we ran a square aluminum block at 3,000 RPM with an Interrupted-cut. It was a piece of 2.5” square aluminum measuring approx 2.00” long with a depth of cut of .150 per side (.300 total). There was no movement. The fixture performed perfectly. Raptor Fixtures Reduce Lead Time at S&H Machine
After the installation of the machine was complete the first issue we had to resolve was workholding. We thought about designing and manufacturing our own fixtures but the amount of time involved was too great. And then we discovered Raptor Workholding. Raptor Fixtures incorporate a dovetail design on their products, which provides superior strength and access to the workpiece. I would recommend Raptor Products to any company that needs a workholding solution, especially for 4th and 5th axis milling applications. There are not a lot economical options available out there that can accomplish what these fixtures do. - David Fisher, President
Raptor Fixtures Allow VBI to Focus on Machining
We are an aerospace machine shop specializing in automation for repeat work. When we purchased several sophisticated machining centers in 2007, programming and tooling quickly became a bottleneck. We now use the RWP-001 and RWP-002 fixtures for 5-axis milling and for horizontal milling. They've proven to be strong enough for our heavy cuts and our large workpieces, and they require us to waste very little material for workholding purposes. The real power of the Raptor fixture, though, is in numbers. We've decided that every 5-axis part we run will be held using a Raptor dovetail fixture. Accordingly, almost all of the pallets in our Matsuura 5-axis mill are loaded with RWP-001's and RWP-002's. These fixtures are never removed from the machine; their pallets are dedicated for Raptor fixtures. We've incorporated the solid models into our CAD/CAM templates so that our programmers see exactly where the fixture sits in the machine's envelope. With this arrangement, we no longer need to spend time designing workholding solutions for our first milling operations (and on the 5-axis, the first milling operation usually completes all of the major part features). We spend less time programming, because the fixture model is already imported and oriented when we start a new file. We don't spend any time removing or replacing custom fixtures in our machine, because the pallets are dedicated for Raptor fixtures. We're still able to run a wide variety of parts on a shared machine, but we've eliminated the changeover time. In short, we no longer waste our machinists' valuable time with mundane, repetitive tasks. By standardizing on Raptor as our workholding solution, we're able to spend our time on our core competency: automated machining of precision parts. -Brian O'Rell, President W Machine Works Gains Needed Flexibility with Raptor Fixtures W Machine Works utilizes Five-Axis palletized machines for unattended machining. We turned to Raptor when we had a capacity limitation in a five axis cell. We needed to add flexibility and create additional capacity by moving production to another resource; or risk not meeting our customer's delivery dates. We purchased 6 Raptor Workholding fixtures. The goal was to machine complex aerospace products made from titanium blocks using fixtures by Raptor Workholding Products. Their fixtures allowed us to machine parts ranging from 3" cubed to parts measuring 3” X 3” X 15” on the same fixture, providing us the flexibility and capacity we needed. We were very IMPRESSED with the fixtures. They are every bit as rigid as advertised. There was some initial concern from our shop foreman that the fixtures would not be rigid enough. After cutting the first piece he was no longer concerned. He was confident enough to quickly run the entire order unattended in the NMV5000 cell. Thanks to Raptor we were able to meet our customer's delivery dates. The performance was 100 times better than we had expected. We have since purchased 6 more fixtures and will continue using Raptor products in the NMV5000 cell and Matsuura 72-35V cell. We will be using the Raptor Workholding system a lot more now that we have proved its power and flexibility. Randy Neckien Roberts Tool Company Saves Time with Raptor Brad Hart, CEO of Robert’s Tool Company, Chatsworth, CA has been working with Raptor to develop the Raptor Rail. "My shop has been using the other Raptor workholding fixtures for the past six months and we've been impressed with the flexibility they gave us," says Mr. Hart. "We used to spend a lot of time figuring out how to hold the workpiece in our machines. Previously, every part had a different setup and we'd often have trouble providing accurate clearance of the spindle. Since we switched to Raptor and standardized our setup, productivity has increased 30% on those machines using Raptor and we spend far less time in programming. We've tried other products, but they always restricted access to the part, were expensive, or were difficult to use. In our business, the faster we can set up and change out the parts, the better." Mr. Hart added, "When we asked Raptor if they could develop a rail-based solution using the same Raptor concept, they were unbelievably responsive. They listened to what we needed and within a week we were testing prototypes. We are looking into converting some of our other manufacturing cells to Raptor fixtures." . Brad Hart |
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In June of 2008 we took delivery of a Matsuura MAM 72-35V, a five axis palletized machine with 32 pallets and 240 resident tools. We had recently been awarded a contract to machine manifolds for the aerospace industry and each manifold had to pass first article inspection prior to the release of the full contract and prior to full production ramp up. This had to be done quickly because the clock was ticking on our monthly payments. 
