Work Holding
Alouette Tool offers a variety of precision collet, pick-off collet, and guide bushing products through Serge Meister SA, Habegger SA, Masa Tool and Bimu SA – ensuring the finest quality in work holding solutions for your Swiss Turn machines.
We also offer Zeta Safety Collet Nuts for all ER collet holders.
Learn more about our manufacturers’ product lines below!
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Serge Meister Guide Bushings and Collets
Serge Meister offers both Precision Guide Bushings and Collets for all CNC Swiss Turn and CAM Machines. Serge Meister radiuses all edges of the carbide pads by standard free of charge, so there is no sharp edges to score the material – resulting in better surface finish.
Standard Precision of 0.008 – 0.012 μm.
Options include:
- Wave or Zig Zag slots
- Surface Treatment
- Carbide or Bronze Padding
- Extended Nose
- Special Shape Bores
- Extended Pad Length
- Ultra Precision ≤ .005 μm
Custom products can be made to spec with just a sketch drawing.
Habegger Guide Bushings with Rollers
Bar diameter capacity from 1.59 to 26.00 mm
6 types of guide bushings are listed in the directory: D / LD / EXT / CNC / EN / C
The different types of guide bushings must be selected according to the machines or bushing holders used. The guide bushing can only be used for bars of the diameter which corresponds to the size indicated on the cap. Assembly on the machine is effected like you do for a conventional guide bush. We offer a great choice of bushing holders and reduction sleeves.
Advantages of Guide Bushings with Rollers:
It permits to avoid any problem of untrueness in connection with usual revolving bushings, because of its direct contact with the material. The concentricity between material diameter and outside/inside turning diameters of the workpiece is warranted.
It avoids any axial seizing-up when cutting large chips or when chasing a thread.
It is preloaded by its setting system. This, however, is not the case for the collet of a revolving bushing. By radial efforts, the collet with no preload may open a bit (clearance of the thread, elasticity of the collet material).
It makes no problem with the emulsions. More than 50% of the users run the machines with emulsion. The proportion increases still.
It has no rotation speed limits on the present machines on the market. This is related to the fact that the rotation diameter of the rollers is smaller than the ball-bearing diameter of usual revolving bushes.
It permits to correct slightly the geometry of smooth materials, like Titan, Aluminum, etc. by clamping it a little more than usual. The action will result in “rolling” the raw material. The guide bushing can be moved on the material axis, so that it can be brought nearer to the tools or moved a little away from them. This, however, cannot be done with the revolving bushing, as its axial position is fixed.
When the wanted precision of your workpiece requires a strong adjusting strain on the guide bushing (either fixed or revolving), your guide bushing may frequently seize up at the headstock spindle return, for example at thread chasing or when you are deburring a thread. When the material advances in the bushing, it shows a tendency to open the bush. The return motion, however, has an inevitable self-clamping effect. The guide bushing with rollers permits to avoid that situation.
Habegger Three Position Guide Bushings Type “TP”
The “TP” Guide Bushing is a non-revolving bushing fitted with tungsten carbide rollers. The adjustment of which is done by a pneumatic cylinder.
Its principle is relatively simple: The conventional guiding elements of Habegger bushes with rollers do not change. The inside components are identical with those of our present guide bushings, excepted the nut at the back. That nut, used for manual adjustment, has been replaced by a pneumatic cylinder permitting to adjust the bushing at any time.
The material bar is guided by tungsten carbide rollers, driven by the rotation of the bar. That is the principle of a needle bearing, the inside cage of which would be the material bar (direct contact) and it results in an optimal material guiding.
The guide bushing can only be used for bars of the diameter which corresponds to the size indicated on the cap.
Benefits of the TP Guide Bushing:
- Non-revolving bushing fitted with tungsten carbide rollers. Direct Contact with the machined material bar. The adjustment is done by a pneumatic cylinder.
- 3 positions: working – clamping – open
- Before machining each workpiece, the guide bushing gets adjusted to the exact tolerance (ma. h11) of the material bar, there where the workpiece will be clamped.
- Assembly is possible with guide bushing holders of our production on most of the CNC machines.
MASA TOOL MICROCONIC™ WORK HOLDING SYSTEM
Masa Tool’s Microconic “cartridge” and “collet” system was designed to overcome the limitations of traditional long nose sub spindle collets that frustrate machinists. The result is superior rigidity, accuracy, over-grip capability, clamping force control, and long-run stability. Everything from the Masa Tool catalog is available to ship within a week – every size, every type.
Currently offering any size from 0.2mm – 10mm diameter (.008” – .394”).
Concentricity .0001 – .0002″ or 3 to 5 micron.
The Microcronic™ system consists of the Cartridge and the Collet. The Microconic Cartridge fits in your machine spindle just like a standard collet, with a built-in extended nose. A Microconic Collet then fits into the cartridge. The cartridge clamps the workpiece right at the nose rather than farther backwards inside a traditional pick-off collet – creating a significant improvement in rigidity.
Each finger of the collet has a separate conical surface that acts to apply the gripping force with superb accuracy.
The Microconic system provides extreme accuracy, high rigidity, and previously unattainable tolerances for workpiece size variance.
NOW you can move production operations to the sub-spindle of from the main in your CNC lathes to equalize out cutting time. You will be able to do heavy machining operations in the sub spindle, such as blind hole broaching, that would not have even considered in the past.
Click Here for the Masa Tool Catalog
Revolving Ends & Barfeeder Collets from BIMU SA
BIMU SA offers sizes and typing on all revolving ends barfeeder collets and loaders at much more competitive pricing than leading manufacturers with guarenteed match in quality and precision. Save 30-50% on Revolving Ends alone by switching from OEM distributors.
Click here for BIMU’s Revolving Ends & Barfeeder Collets catalog.