German press brake tooling and guillotine shear blade manufacturer, UKB Uwe Krumm GmbH, whose products range from 60 to 6000 mm in length and weigh from a few hundred grams to several tonnes, has 14 machining centres on its shop floor.

Across all of the company’s equipment, which is also employed for general subcontract machining, only two types of vice are used regardless of the size and geometry of the component and material being processed.
The work-holding devices are supplied exclusively by the Hilma division of the Roemheld group. There are around 90 vices in use from the firm’s NC160 and VL160 series. The standard base length of the vices is 750 mm, providing a clamping range of 508 mm, sufficient for most of UKB’s workpieces, while various top jaws enlarge the range to a maximum of 772 mm. Configurations vary from five vices on the smaller milling machines, up to 14 vices on a DMG Mori DMF 600 linear five-axis model with 6 m in the X axis.
UKB’s head of production Peter Diehl says: “We use the vices for everything from simple three-axis operations to complex five-axis machining applications requiring multiple set-ups. They are highly precise, always dependable and easy to use.”
In view of the requirement for high-precision machining, typically to within ± 0.01 mm, Diehl places special emphasis on process reliability.
“Clamping components with minimum deformation is of major importance to us,” he says. “With Hilma machine vices, we can hold the workpiece at maximum pressure for roughing – say to reduce a tough Hardox steel blank for a 5 m tool weighing 6 tonnes, to just 1.5 tonnes – then lower the clamping force for finish machining.”
For further information www.roemheld.co.uk