RAD Collet Gripper Enables 3X Capacity Increase

Frank Lewis, the electronic engineering manager at Chromalloy Nevada (a manufacturer of jet aircraft engine vanes and blades), was one of the first to purchase RAD's new C-8800 collet gripper. With 8X the grip force of the previously used RAD C-8700 collet gripper, the C-8800 allowed Chromalloy to increase their production 300% by enabling them to redesign their wax molds to hold three molds per tree vs. the original one mold per tree. Additionally, by choosing an optional magnetic cylinder with sensor slots, Chromalloy was able to utilize sensors in the collet gripper which enabled feedback to the controls - telling the system when the gripper was open and available to pick up a mold and when it was closed and holding a mold. Using the sensors increased the safety of the operation.

RAD's collet gripper was chosen over a traditional 3-jaw gripper due to the closed nature of the gripper (keeps slurry from entering the gripper mechanism), the 360° of part contact, and the narrow profile of the gripper.

Chromalloy uses the RAD C-8800 collet gripper to pick up large base molds (12") and tri-molds (3 molds in one) and perform a 3-step process: dipping the mold into a ceramic slurry, moving the part into a Rainfall sander and rotating it for coverage and putting the mold into a casting oven. For more information on this process, please see the Chromalloy site at http://www.chromalloy-cnv.com.

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