Development of Shrink-Fit Tool Holder using Shape Memory Alloys

Conventional shrink-fit tool holders have positive features, such as high accuracy, high strength, high stiffness and low sensitivity to centrifugal forces, but they require heavy investments for heating and cooling equipment. Generally the heating equipment has to heat the tool holder up to $200{\sim}300^{\circ}C$ for tool changes. This paper introduces a novel shrink-fit tool holder that is able to unclamp a tool at $40{\sim}50^{\circ}C$. This feature makes it possible to switch between the clamped and unclamped states by using a simple device, which has lower power, smaller size and lower cost than the heating equipment of the conventional shrink-fit tool holders. The proposed shrink-fit tool holder is able to expand its tool hole by using the shape memory alloys which are integrated in the tool holder body. Performances of the SMA shrink-fit tool holder were evaluated experimentally. The experimental results confirm that the proposed tool holder is feasible in aspects of clamping/unclamping operations, clamping force and repeatability of tool setup.

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