A custom-designed chuck that works like a charm
Phillips Precision's Products Division in Boylston, Mass. (Weyland Group) designs and develops advanced workholding tools and inspection fixtures for manufacturers. The Timken Company challenged their engineering team. They needed a precise and repeatable chuck that could hold parts up to 28 inches.
When The Timken Company brought a challenge involving large-diameter bearing inspection, the Phillips Precision (Weyland) team got to work.
The task: build a precise and repeatable chuck; capable of holding parts up to 28 inches in diameter on a rotary-table CMM.
The solution? The "Gear-Drive Chuck" -- a massive, mechanically synchronized 30-inch custom chuck engineered for maximum range, stability, and true centering.
Designed and built entirely in-house by Weyland Group's engineering team, the "Gear-Drive Chuck" integrates a synchronized three-jaw mechanism that moves all jaws simultaneously and maintains centering through the entire 2 -- 28" clamping range. This was crucial for use with rotary CMM setups, where centering is directly tied to measurement accuracy.
"The goal was simple on paper -- build a chuck that centers a 28-inch bearing with mic-level accuracy," said Victor Rinaldi, Product Development Engineer at Weyland Group. "The actual engineering was anything but simple. But that's what we love about this kind of work."
A dual-stage gear system powers the actuation. A coarse-pitch primary gear handles rapid movement to position the jaws, while a smaller secondary gear, engineered to rotate at twice the rate, delivers the final precision tightening with operator control.
The system blends speed and finesse for a smooth, reliable clamping cycle. "...Working like a charm," says Michael Benedict, Metrology Engineer at The Timken Company.
To maintain surface integrity and prevent part distortion, pressure-equalizing thrust, and needle bearings distribute loads evenly and minimize stresses across all contact surfaces; ideal for large, round workpieces with critical tolerances.
Chucks like this are rare. There are only a few known in the world. Custom-built for demanding metrology use, the chuck expands the possibilities of what rotary CMMs can accurately inspect.
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