FRESMAK designs, manufactures and commercialises workholding fixtures and clamping systems for the machining of complex high-value workpieces. Complexity of workpiece in this project is understood as:
• Large pieces with complex geometries, requiring several consecutive clamping-machining operations and several workholding fixtures. The piece is usually clamped to the fixture outside the cutting-machine in a precision operation that could take from several minutes to more than one hour.
• Pieces in advanced materials, particularly non-ferromagnetic ones like aluminium or titanium and composites.
Complex high-value pieces are a growing field, particularly in high requirement sectors like the aeronautic, and especially in Europe, where 30-40% of worldwide manufacturing of these pieces is concentrated. Remarkable examples of these pieces are fuselage structures and complex pieces of the jet engines. FRESMAK, in collaboration with POLYMAT (University of Basque Country), has developed an alternative innovative clamping element, called TGRIP, based on the principle of adhesion. Main features of TGRIP are:
• It’s a rigid, non-residue leaving, reversible and reusable adhesive material activated and deactivated through temperature (>60⁰C) that maintains adhesion force at ambient temperature.
• Easy to manufacture, cheap material that can be machined at precisions below 0,003 mm, to create high precision fixture-workpiece contacts and unions.
• Does not compromise the cutting area, exactly like electromagnetic and vacuum clamping.
• Very high adhesion, clamping and cutting forces per unit of surface (1.000 N/cm2), between 6-12 times higher than the electromagnetic and vacuum technologies.
This principle is applicable both to ferromagnetic and non-ferromagnetic materials, and is suitable for thin wall and complex geometries. At the same union force range it is 50% cheaper than the vacuum alternative and 80% cheaper than the electromagnetic solution. At a same range piece of high complexity, due to TGRIP requires less fixture equipment and machining steps, it is 70% cheaper than the mechanical clamping systems.
The overall objective of the project is the demonstration of TGRIP technology in the market and the configuration of the first commercial range of TGRIP based clamping devices destined to be supplied the worldwide fixture and clamping system manufacturing sector.
