With its slim design, the ETP HYDRO-GRIP® PENCIL is one of the most versatile hydraulic holders on the market. Its extensive range of standard dimensions and lengths helps improve productivity when machining deep cavities and complex components.
The ETP HYDRO-GRIP PENCIL (HGPE) range has now been expanded in two key areas:
Higher-Bending-Stiffness ETP PENCIL Holders
These stiffer ETP PENCIL HYDRO-GRIP holders provide 12–25% greater bending stiffness, improving performance in hard-to-reach applications that generate high radial forces, including:
- Circular interpolation
- High-load slot milling
- Contour and profile milling
With up to 25–30% greater stiffness, these holders extend the HYDRO-GRIP PENCIL range into demanding, long-reach applications. They are better able to counteract radial forces during circular interpolation and slot milling in areas of a component that are difficult to access.
ETP PENCIL Holders Design 4 for D&M Applications
ETP PENCIL HYDRO-GRIPs Design 4 holders feature 3° and 1.5° outside-diameter contours that match the profiles of shrink-fit holders while allowing slightly larger front-end dimensions.
In today’s D&M applications, advanced CAD/CAM systems increasingly generate toolpaths that accommodate larger front-end dimensions. As a result, smaller interference contours are needed less often, provided the holder’s outside profile matches that of a shrink-fit holder.
For secure tool clamping with excellent, consistent concentricity, hydraulic clamping offers clear technical advantages over shrink-fit clamping. One of the most significant is a substantially longer service life:
- Hydraulic holders can last at least 10 times longer than shrink-fit holders.
- A shrink-fit holder typically provides about 500 clamp/unclamp cycles, compared with thousands of cycles for a HYDRO-GRIP holder—more than 2,500 cycles, depending on use.
- Shrink-fit chucks rely on repeated heating and cooling to clamp and release tools. Over time, these cycles can alter the material structure, cause fatigue, and reduce both tool accuracy and holder bending stiffness.
- Shrink-fit systems require capital equipment for heating, a balancing machine after each clamping cycle, and ongoing electricity costs and more this generates more environment sustainability losses.
- Tool changes take less than two minutes, compared with approximately six to eight minutes for a shrink-fit holder.
ETP PENCIL HYDRO-GRIPs Design 4 also bring the core benefits of the HYDRO-GRIP system to D&M applications:
- Flexible clamping across a range of tool-shank diameters through the use of high-precision sleeves.
- Fast, simple, and precise clamping of h6-shank tools, with runout of 3–4 microns.
