7MPa Work Support and Clamp Systems

Ask your Vektek sales representative for the Power Workholding Brochure. Time studies and costs are comparable justification.

The three cams and three cam balls guide the rotation of the plunger and provide greater guide, support and directional stability. The patented cam follower design is unique in the industry and uses solid tungsten carbide balls and stainless steel ball seats. The ball seat design assures that the ball rolls in the cam rather than jamming and scraping resulting in wear on both the cam track and ball. This vastly improves swing repeatability, contacting the same point ±0.25 degrees.

Vektek 7 MPa Work Supports and Swing Clamps are made in capacity sets as well as arm-to-support centerline measurement.

Standardized repeatability of ±0.25 degrees is “Best-In-Class” Worldwide.

TuffCam™ 7 MPa is a single direction tri-cam design swing clamp. These clamps produce the strength and reliability to support faster speeds and larger arms. TuffCam™ 7 MPa delivers notably better accuracy and repeatability over other brands. The clocking feature, dramatically reduces the time it takes to change arms for maintenance, replacement or design set up.

The maximum speed of a swing clamp is applicable to both clamp and unclamp function, as the momentum on the cam track and cam follower apply to both movements. To approximate the speed of your application:

• Look down the centerline of the swing clamp, perpendicular to the arm.
• Actuate your clamping system while watching the arm “swing” into position.
• The eye can track speed of movement at roughly 1/16 second. If while looking directly into the end of the swing clamp you can observe the arm move through it’s swing, the positioning time should be somewhere around 1/2 second or longer. (See flow rates and clamping time tables.)
• If, while looking directly into the end of the swing clamp, you can cannot observe the arm move, or it is unclamped and the next thing you can see is the device in the clamped position, the positioning time is something substantially less than 1/2 second. Your standard model clamp is at risk of premature failure. However, the TuffCam Swing Clamps can actuate at a faster speed.
• It is possible to approximate the clamp time by adding the total active volume of devices in the specific control branch of your system, and dividing that volume (cubic inches) by your pump’s output volume (cubic inches per minute) and then multiplying that number by 60 (60 seconds per minute). This will give you the theoretical calculated time to move a device through its stroke, but does not account for flow loss due to flow restrictions in the system.

It is unlikely that you can use the jam nut to hold arm orientation adequately. We have had customers modify clamps to include flats, pins, serrations or use set screws to hold orientation. These methods may work in specific instances. We still recommend our method of attachment, locknut and cross bolt for a secure, dependable, universal attachment. Other methods may complicate the replacement of clamps when they are damaged by a machine crash or other problems.

Our arm is designed to hold orientation when properly installed. It has a relief to keep from over-stressing the locknut. It will probably cost you less than the total cost of making your own. You can rest assured that our arm is made to our specifications and will withstand the forces our clamps generate, when used as recommended.

Our first recommendation is to modifying our existing arms if possible. All VektorFlo® arms are able to be machined or welded. You should be able to easily modify any standard arm you purchase. We recommend this because our original design for the cross bolt orientation mechanism is the most secure, dependable and versatile orientation method available. Many customers and competitors have tried to copy it, some with limited success.
If you desire to make your own arm(s), refer to the detailed information at the start of Section D. Please be sure to put in the 0.5 mm step for the locknut and relieve the cut in the arm so that the bolt will squeeze the plunger shaft. If you do not take these two steps, your custom arm may not work satisfactorily.