GB753878A - Fluid actuated clamps for clamping work pieces against a support - Google Patents

Abstract

753,878. Work holders; drilling-machine details. VOGL, H. W., VOGL, C., and VOGL, O., [trading as WILTON TOOL MFG. CO.]. March 15, 1954, No. 7487/54. Class 83 (3). A fluid-actuated clamp for clamping a workpiece F, Fig. 1, against a support K comprises a piston 17, Fig. 2, reciprocable in a cylinder 14 by pressure-fluid applied to a chamber 33 and acting .against a spring 29, a stud 10 attached to the support, e.g. by screw threads 11, and means, e.g. balls 30, operable by movement of the piston towards the work to anchor the cylinder to the stud, whereby the piston can press the work against the support. The cylinder contains a sleeve 22 which engages the end of the stud, the balls being contained in radial holes 31 therein'and moved into a groove 32 in the stud by an extension 18 of the piston which slides over the sleeve. A recess 26a in the end of the extension allows outward movement of the balls to release the stud when pressure, is released from chamber 33 and the piston is withdrawn from the work by spring 29. As shown, the support is a jig receiving the reduced end of cylindrical work which is to have a number of radial holes I drilled therein, the work being indexed by table A, rotated step-bystep by a compressed-air mechanism. To permit cylinder 14 to turn with the work, fluid, e.g. compressed air, is supplied to and exhausted from chamber 33 via member 38 within the sleeve 22, and connected to line 36. In another arrangement, where large work is to be clamped, a number of clamps are provided at the required positions and fed from a common source. Where the air-pressure available is insufficient, it may be applied to a piston which moves a smaller piston in cylinder containing hydraulic fluid, the resulting pressure of which is thus greater than that of the air supply. In a modification the stud has a T-head for engagement with a slot in a-work-supporting table, and threads at its free end for engagement with threads in the sleeve of the clamp.