What might once have seemed like a bizarre method of holding parts for CNC machining has become a common step for Advance CNC Machining. The shop often machines thin-walled enclosures prone to distort either during machining or after unclamping. Vaccuum fixturing has helped with this challenge, but the shop found a more cost-effective choice in the adhesive workholding system from Blue Photon.
The adhesive is UV-activated. Applying UV light as part of the setup instantly cures the glue. Then, after machining, shear force applied via torque is sufficient to manually remove each glue contact.
Operations manager Mitch Graham now applies this workholding method as a routine part of machining.
He gives me a complete demonstration of the adhesive workholding in this video: