ANCA recently developed a new product which provides more flexibility and capability while enhancing the FX machine range. The product is a tooling system used on FX5 and FX7 machines which offers the ability to easily interchange between woodworking profile blades and cylindrical (shank) tools. This means companies grinding woodworking tools can grind blade profiles and then quickly change to cylindrical shank tools, such as compression router bits.

In addition, companies focusing predominantly on engineering tools can consider adding woodworking blade profiles to their product portfolio.
  
This tooling system comes as a package. The package includes a workholding adaptor (blade chuck) to hold flat profile blades and a blade gripper head fitted to the robot loader to load woodworking blades or cylindrical tools without any mechanical changes. This means the robot head does not need to be changed. A blade gripper is used to load and unload blades and gripper fingers for loading cylindrical tools. Optional pallets are available for both blades and shank tools.

The blade chuck works with a pull stud clamping mechanism. Switching between the blade chuck and standard collet adaptor (for cylindrical tools) is done in minutes. Automatic loading and grinding of blade profiles with a smallest size of 20 x 20mm (0.78”) and largest size of 80 (3.14”) x 30mm (1.18”) is possible. This system is also retrofittable to existing FX5 and FX7 machines. 

The blade chuck work holding has an adjustable insertion depth between 8 (5/16”) and 28mm (1.10”). The chuck can accommodate blades on or between 0.5 (0.019”) to 4mm (0.15”) thick using different size datum blocks. When manual loading, the chuck can hold blades up to 120mm (4.72”) long. Blades with a bevelled edge can also be supported. An air blast operates during the clamping and unclamping cycles to ensure the chuck is free of any contaminants. Digitizing of the top, side and bottom of the blade along with notches or datum features is possible. The chuck can also rotate for blades with an undercut feature, so the profile can be ground normal to the blade surface. 

In addition to the tooling system for blades, ANCA has a dedicated software package for grinding varied and multiple blade profiles. The user-friendly software enables quick programming and short set-up times. The user can easily define the workholding, blank and profile or import a DXF. The blades themselves are mounted into tools used on different woodworking machinery for cutting profiles into solid wood furniture and components such as skirting boards and architraves.