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Freezing provides novel handling solution

A Cryotech product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Mar 31, 2003

Anyone who has ever pulled an ice-lolly from the freezer and promptly got their tongue stuck to the end will immediately understand the principle behind ice chucks.

Anyone who has ever pulled an ice-lolly from the freezer and promptly got their tongue stuck to the end will immediately understand the principle behind ice chucks.

The film of moisture on the tongue has frozen, causing a slightly embarrassing moment that hopefully passes unnoticed.

Exactly the same theory applies to ice chucks.

Components are placed on a stainless steel and copper or aluminium surface covered with a film of water which is then frozen.

Although the concept of freeze clamping has been around for some years, it is relatively unexplored in the engineering sector.

But now this is changing, particularly with the more and more exotic materials, resulting in manufacturers beginning to find applications aplenty for this innovative process.

Production engineers scratching over components that are thin, fragile, nonmagnetic or irregular in shape will find a solution with an ice chuck.

Parts placed on an ice chuck can be frozen at the base efficiently for machining operations to take place, or if particularly fragile - such as thin walled honeycomb structures - then complete submersion resulting in a frozen block is an option.

Ice chucks have many advantages.

Possibly the most important is that a cutter can gain access to all sides of a component, eliminating the need to rotate a part in order to machine faces obscured by conventional vices and chucks.

Typical holding forces generated are in the region of 15kg/cm2 more than sufficient for machining, turning, drilling grinding and engraving operations.

This technology can also render coolant redundant, so in 90% of cases the effect of an ice chuck is sufficient to remove heat from the component being machined.

Freezing and defrosting can take as little as 30s; although if this is not quick enough, twin systems are available so that one batch of components can be machined while the next batch is frozen in anticipation.

At a flick of a switch temperatures are plunged down to around -15C, ensuring that any heat generated by the actual machining process does not melt the bond.

Yet equipment of this type can go down to -30C if required, a temperature that will frighten some manufacturers concerned about the possible effects of shrinkage.

However, fear not, once a 'first off' of a particular component has been machined, shrinkage levels will always remain consistent if material and temperature parameters are maintained.

And as ice chucks are capable of retaining temperature accurate to with in 0.5C problems are rarely encountered.

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