Grippex automatic bar puller for CNC lathes

There are multiple ways to automate a CNC lathe. If your goal is to gain lengthy stretches of unattended operation, then a bar feeder is hard to beat. Conversely, a bar puller is a cost-effective alternative for automated turning of small or medium batch sizes. That’s because a puller can free up sufficient time between bar changes to enable a single operator to tend multiple machines, measure critical part features or perform value-adding secondary operations. The resulting labour cost savings can quickly pay for the puller.

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For various reasons, such as high costs or limited floor space in workshops, a small percentage only of CNC lathes are equipped with some kind of magazine type bar feeder. In small batch production however the machine spindle itself, in addition with its inserted guiding tube and Grippex automatic bar puller provides you with a simple and highly efficient bar feeder.

Rather than pushing a bar through a lathe’s spindle and into the work zone as a bar feeder does, a bar puller, installed in a turret station, pulls the bar out of the spindle. The lathe’s turret positions the puller to grip the bar and then retracts along the Z-axis, bringing a portion of the bar into the work zone. Once turning and part cutoff are completed on that section, the process repeats until the bar is consumed. Pullers don’t take up any floor space or require an electrical interface with a lathe’s control. They also can be easily removed and used on other lathes.

For further details contact Duncan Macdonald & Company on TEL: 011 444 4345 or visit www.macduck.co.za