Northwest Aerospace News April | May Issue No.14 | Page 68

S
o how does this benefit you? Time savings, for one. Have
you ever been machining a part and you have to do it very,
very slowly because it’s such a multi-step process? Machine
a little in short shallow passes. Then adjust your hold, re-
clamp and make more passes — then adjust again … and
again … and again. With Vacu-Grip there’s little to no need
for continued adjustment. The hold force is so strong, you
can make passes at higher speeds and with more depth than
other vacuum workholding solutions can provide.
But what about that 8000 Series?
But what we really want to get to is the LM side of the house
and this 8000 series material. Why?
Because its applications in the tooling world are unreal:
Tool material 30 to 50 percent harder than the work piece
material? Check. High hot hardness temperature? Check.
High toughness? Check. High wear resistance? Check. High
thermal conductivity? Check. Lower coefficient of friction?
Check. Easiness in fabrication and cheap? Double check.
The 8000 series has CTE’s comparable to Invar. For those
that don’t know, Invar is a nickel steel alloy with a negligible
coefficient of thermal expansion. Its name actually comes
from the term “invariable” because its properties don’t really
change with temperature fluctuation — an important property
in a tooling material. The 8000 series has almost the same
invariability at a much lower cost.
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NORTHWEST AEROSPACE NEWS
In addition to having a low coefficient of thermal expan-
sion (CTE), the 8000 series offers cost savings. Not only
is the material itself cheaper than other materials, but it is
also technically additive manufacturing. Technical Tooling
has the ability to cast to “near net shape” with a minimally
subtractive finishing process that translates to less wasted
material and a much quicker tool making process. In one in-
stance they were able to replicate a tool for a customer that
was taking three to six months for the customer to machine
… these guys did it in 10 days. Imagine the cost savings in
time alone!
Why isn’t everyone using it?
All of this sounds great right? Well then why isn’t everyone
using it? The answer is, as with many new and expanding
technologies on the market, there’s always the “this is how
we’ve always done it” mentality to overcome. I actually
spoke with the owner of a carbon composites company at a
networking event last quarter and we discussed Technical
Tooling. What I found out is that many carbon composite
companies are proponents of tooling solutions like what
Technical Tooling offers in the 8000 Series material. The
hang up is actually in the spec writing process for OEM’s
and Tier 1 suppliers. Because this technology is so new it
has not yet been adopted by some of the bigger players in
the industry, but things are progressing on that front.