 IMTS 2026, the International Manufacturing Technology Show, brings together the world’s leading manufacturers, technology providers, and metalworking innovators to showcase the latest advancements in machining, tooling, workholding, automation, and production efficiency. This year, several F&L Technical Sales principals will be exhibiting at the show, including Blue Photon Workholding, Dorian Tool, Horn USA, Mate Precision Technologies, and Platinum Tooling. Learn more below and click the hotlinks for details! Blue Photon Workholding Stop by the Blue Photon booth at IMTS to see how advanced adhesive workholding technology is helping manufacturers securely fixture complex, thin-walled, and difficult-to-clamp parts while improving access, accuracy, and process flexibility. If you're machining aerospace, medical, composites, or other high-value components, Blue Photon offers innovative solutions worth adding to your IMTS agenda. Dorian Tool Visit Dorian Tool at IMTS to explore the latest advancements in turning, boring, quick-change tooling, and workholding solutions. For decades, Dorian has helped shops improve productivity, precision, and setup efficiency across a wide range of machining applications. Stop by to see proven tooling solutions designed to maximize machine performance and profitability Horn USA Make plans to visit Horn USA at IMTS and discover why HORN is recognized worldwide for precision grooving, threading, milling, boring, and Swiss-type machining solutions. From standard tooling to highly engineered custom applications, HORN continues to push the boundaries of metalcutting performance, productivity, and process reliability. Mate Precision Technologies Be sure to visit Mate Precision Technologies at IMTS to learn how their industry-leading workholding, fixturing, and metalforming solutions are helping manufacturers reduce setup times, increase accuracy, and improve overall production efficiency. Whether you're focused on machining, stamping, or automation, Mate brings innovative solutions designed for today's manufacturing challenges. Platinum Tooling Visit Platinum Tooling at IMTS to see the latest productivity-enhancing solutions for Swiss-type and precision CNC machining. Representing world-class manufacturers of live tools, angle heads, guide bushings, workholding, and specialty accessories, Platinum Tooling helps shops maximize machine capability and gain a competitive edge through smarter tooling technology.
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Most machinists have a pretty set idea of what workholding looks like — vises, clamps, fixtures, soft jaws, and the compromises that come with them. Limited tool access. Extra setups. Parts that want to move once you get aggressive with feeds or reach into a tricky feature.
This new video from Blue Photon takes a look at a very different approach. Instead of clamping a part mechanically, Blue Photon uses a UV-activated adhesive to hold parts in place during machining. No jaws in the way. No fixture towers. Just full access to the part. If your first reaction is skepticism, that’s fair, it was my reaction a few years ago when the folks at Blue Photon told me about it — and exactly why this video is worth watching. The video walks through how the system actually works, where it works, and why some shops are using it for complex, thin, or hard-to-fixture parts. It’s especially interesting if you do 5-axis work, machine delicate components, or spend too much time designing fixtures just to get to the features you really care about. This system isn’t going to replacie every vise or fixture in your shop. It’s about adding another option to your toolbox — one that may solve problems you’ve just learned to work around. If you’ve ever looked at a part and thought, “There has to be a better way to hold this,” this Blue Photon video is worth a few minutes of your time. After you check it out, if you've got questions, just contact one of the folks here at F&L Technical Sales and they can answer your questions or set up a demo. Maximize Your Manufacturing Efficiency: Visit F&L Technical Sales’ Principals at EASTEC 20255/5/2025 editors note: create graphic and link to each of the principals to their exhbitor landing page Join F&L Technical Sales at EASTEC 2025 and visit our principals—Platinum Tooling, Blue Photon, Horn USA, and Mate Precision Technologies—to explore cutting-edge solutions in LIVE tooling, adhesive workholding, high-performance cutting tools, and precision 52/96 workholding systems.  EASTEC, the premier Northeast manufacturing trade show, returns from May 13 to 15, 2025, at the Eastern States Exposition, 1305 Memorial Ave, West Springfield, MA. This event showcases the latest advancements in machining, tooling, and automation, providing a vital platform for industry professionals to discover cutting-edge solutions, enhance productivity, and connect with key suppliers. This year, F&L Technical Sales is proud to support several top-tier manufacturers showcasing breakthrough technologies in tooling, workholding, and machining solutions. Be sure to visit the following booths to explore innovative products that can optimize your machining processes: Blue Photon – Revolutionary Adhesive Workholding, Booth 5138 Blue Photon’s game-changing workholding technology at EASTEC. Their UV-curable adhesive workholding solutions provide unparalleled grip for complex parts, improving machining stability and reducing setup times. This innovative system is ideal for precision applications where traditional clamping methods fall short. Horn USA – High-Performance Cutting Tools, Booth 5353 Horn USA continues to push the boundaries of cutting tool technology. Stop by their booth to see the latest innovations in grooving, milling, and high-performance machining solutions. Horn’s advanced carbide tooling delivers exceptional precision, tool life, and efficiency, making them a go-to solution for demanding applications. Mate Precision Technologies - 52/96 Workholding, Booth 5144 Mate Precision Technologies offers high-precision workholding solutions designed to optimize machining performance. Their 52/96 workholding system provides secure, repeatable, and efficient part clamping, enhancing productivity for CNC milling and machining applications. Visit their booth to see how Mate’s robust workholding solutions can improve accuracy, reduce setup time, and maximize machine utilization. Platinum Tooling – LIVE Tooling & More, Booth 5148 Visit Platinum Tooling at EASTEC to see high-performance LIVE tooling solutions from Heimatec. Engineered for precision and durability, Heimatec tooling produces high-precision static and live tools for all CNC lathes, CNC turn-mill machines and CNC machining centers. Don’t miss the opportunity to learn how their advanced tooling options can decrease your manufacturing cycle times. Plan Your Visit to EASTEC 2025
EASTEC is a must-attend event for manufacturers looking to stay ahead of industry trends and implement next-generation solutions. Connect with F&L Technical Sales and our principals to see live product demonstrations and discuss how these advanced solutions can benefit your business. Stay ahead of the competition—mark your calendar for EASTEC 2025 and visit our partners’ booths to see the latest in machining and manufacturing technology!  IMTS 2024 F&L Technical Sales Blue Photon Workholding Dorian Tool Mate Precision Tooling PH Horn turning inserts The International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) is just around the corner, and it's shaping up to be a can't-miss event for anyone in the manufacturing industry. F&L Technical Sales is excited to announce that several of our principals will be showcasing their cutting-edge products. Below is a sneak peek at what you can expect! Blue Photon Workholding SystemsDiscover the innovative solutions offered by Blue Photon, a leader in advanced workholding technology. At IMTS, Blue Photon will showcase their 52MM and 96MM pallets, which are designed to enhance precision and efficiency in your machining processes. Blue Photon's 150mm, 225mm, and 300mm square pallets offer quick change and adhesive workholding of complex and hard-to-hold parts for EDM, grinding, inspection, laser, and milling operations. These pallets hold parts securely, providing increased machining access on five to six surfaces while using existing fixturing systems in machining centers. The grip pallets were designed to simplify how parts are loaded and held to reduce scrap and increase spindle up-time.
Dorian Tool Anti-Vibration Boring Bars When it comes to precision and stability in boring operations, Dorian Tool stands out with their Solution Tool Anti-Vibration Boring Bars. These tools are engineered to reduce chatter and vibration, resulting in superior surface finishes and extended tool life. Don't miss the opportunity to see these high-performance tools in action at the Dorian Tool booth.
Horn New Grade IG35Horn USA will be introducing their new grade IG35 as well at IMTS. This latest innovation is designed to deliver exceptional performance in a wide range of materials, offering outstanding wear resistance and extended tool life. The new grade offers improved thermal properties so it really boosts productivity in stainless steel and heat resistant alloys. It allows improved edge adhesion on sharp edge geometries. And don't forget to check out the new new Supermini type 105 sintered chip breaking geometry we talked about last month!
Mate Precision Technoliges Workholding SystemMate Precision Technologies is set to unveil their advanced 52/96 workholding system, designed to provide unmatched precision and stability for your machining operations. These systems are tailored to improve setup times and ensure consistent, high-quality results, making them a must-see at IMTS.
Join Us at IMTS 2024
F&L Technical Sales invites you to visit our principals' booths at IMTS 2024 in Chicago. This is your chance to see firsthand the latest advancements in manufacturing technology and how they can benefit your operations. Our team will be on hand to answer your questions and provide detailed demonstrations. Don't miss out on this opportunity to elevate your manufacturing processes with the industry's leading solutions. See you at IMTS 2024! For more information, visit IMTS 2024 and make sure to stop by the F&L Technical Sales booths or just contact us now. When a casting proved too malleable for traditional gripping, Thomas/Euclid Industries adopted — and succeeded with — Blue Photon adhesive workholding.  Soft material was not the EV strut housing’s only workholding challenge: The part barely fit the UMC 750’s travels. Potential fixtures needed to be low-profile enough to ensure the part continued to fit the machine. Images courtesy of Thomas/Euclid. As metals go, aluminum is soft and quick to bend — factors which make it easy to work with for most machining applications but make workholding to tolerances of 0.0005 inch unfeasible with traditional grippers. The force required to perform workholding could send the part out of tolerance, requiring rework or scrap. For Thomas/Euclid Industries, this difficulty became the push it needed to experiment with alternative forms of workholding, utilizing Blue Photon’s adhesive grippers to perform contactless gripping on an EV strut housing made from an aluminum casting. Maximizing Lights-on ProfitsThomas/Euclid is primarily an aerospace manufacturer — EV automotive parts are not the norm for the company. In this case, the job came about not long after the shop installed a MatsuuraMX 330 five-axis machine. The new machine’s automation capacity enabled the shop to run many of the jobs previously on its five-axis Haas UMC 750 for longer periods, decreasing the time necessary to complete these jobs even as it left the UMC 750 idle. Ryan Merrill, chief operating officer at Thomas/Euclid, says the search for additional work to put on the shop’s UMC 750 led the company to a customer already committed to machining EV strut housings. Complications had arisen from the compressed timeframe to prepare for the job — the typical two-year development time for the part had been shortened to eight months — and a delay in receiving the five-axis machines the customer had been planning to use to machine the housings. Thomas/Euclid had the opportunity to act as a stopgap, delivering parts until its customer’s machines were up and running. Another complication? Most shops that had been offered the job had already turned it down due to the nature of the part itself: a 20-inch-long, near-net aluminum casting with an odd shape and inconvenient tolerances. While the customer would provide the casting, and all Thomas/Euclid needed to do was machine holes in it, consistently gripping the part without marring and distorting it was a massive challenge. The combination of a quick-change base and adhesive workholding enabled the shop to manually change over setups and fixture parts in about seven to 10 minutes while achieving a repeatability that other workholding methods could not match. Getting the Green Light on Blue Photon The EV strut housing was the first project for which Thomas/Euclid used 3D printed fixturing. While the experience involved some growing pains, with the fixture coming in heavier than expected, the shop was able to prove out all four versions in time to produce the part. Adhesive workholding offered a path forward, but not one Thomas/Euclid had used before. While the company had looked at Blue Photon’s adhesive grippers for several applications, the shop had always decided against using them due to the technology’s startup costs. With the EV strut job requiring a contactless workholding setup, however, Thomas/Euclid’s programmers and engineers were quick to point out that adhesive workholding was the most viable method for handling the job. Properly attaching the Blue Photon grippers to the part required irregularly shaped fixtures for each of the four variants of the part (two operations, each with a left- and right-hand version). Blue Photon’s applications engineers volunteered to help, designing the fixtures for additive manufacturing and printing them through Stratasys. Thomas/Euclid then bolted the fixtures onto a quick-change base and screwed the Blue Photon grippers into the ends of the fixture. Shining a Light on Adhesive WorkholdingAfter applying dime-sized dollops of the BlueGrip adhesive to the grippers, Thomas/Euclid’s machinists set the workpiece on the fixture and slid an ultraviolet light up from underneath. This light is connected to a magnetic rod, which snaps into place at the back of the gripper. After about a minute, the adhesive locks the part into place. From here, the company was able to machine the part with no issues. Removing the part required loosening the grippers with a normal socket wrench, then using a handheld steamer to remove the residue from the Blue Photon grippers. Hands-On At All TimesDue to the short run of the part, the shop was not able to automate this last step and therefore manually fixtured parts and changed over setups. Still, the combination of a quick-change base and adhesive workholding enabled the shop to perform these changeovers in about seven to 10 minutes while achieving a repeatability that other workholding methods could not match.
Thomas/Euclid has handed off the EV strut housing job to the original customer, but maintains its Blue Photon stock for suitable future projects. “It was the first time our customer had ever worked with us. It was the first time we had ever worked with Blue Photon. We put a lot of trust and faith in each other that we were going to pull it off, and there were of course some road bumps along the way, but we pulled it off,” Merrill says. “It was incredibly impressive how well Blue Photon worked on this project.” The workholding stabilizer puck simplifies how parts are loaded, reducing scrap, enabling faster feed rates and increasing spindle uptime.  Puck base shown with three large head-in grippers and large gripper external fixed inserts for maximum stabilizing strength. Blue Photon has designed a system using workholding grippers and insert components for use with Big Daishowa and other stabilizer systems. The system holds the workpiece without drilling and tapping into the part or with the need to clamp the part. The unit is easily adjustable when positioning to grip the part wherever needed to stabilize the workpiece. The unit enables the transfer of loads to the machine table and base. The stabilizer puck simplifies how parts are loaded, reducing scrap, enabling faster feed rates and increasing spindle uptime.
The adhesive workholding process involves applying BlueGrip workholding adhesive to the grippers and curing through the grippers from the backside of the puck base with ultraviolet light for 60 sec. By using grippers on top of the workpiece, users can eliminate drilling and tapping into the part. Part removal is quick and easy with a one-quarter turn twist of the gripper. Residual adhesive is simply removed by using a handheld steamer or a hot water soak and a light peeling action. Any part that is at risk of distortion from traditional clamping or poses complications in fixture design are a potential candidate for the technology. Learn More at Workholding Fixture SystemsGrip Pallets
 Did you miss IMTS 2022? Check out the video below recapping the Blue Photon adhesive workholding solutions that was on display. Blue Photon’s adhesive workholding solves problems associated with current workholding devices. The technology allows the user to hold parts and most materials without clamping. It also offers fixture design and engineering for milling, turning, grinding, electrical discharge machining (ECM), electro-chemical machining (EDM), 3D printing, laser, inspection, and assembly applications, including aerospace, additive, robotics, and medical machining. Blue Photon Grip Pallets are designed to simplify how parts are loaded, reduce scrap and increase spindle uptime. Available in 150, 225 and 300 mm square pallets, the Grip Pallets are designed for quick change and adhesive workholding of complex and hard-to-hold parts for EDM, grinding, inspection, laser and milling operations. The pallets can hold parts securely, providing increased machining access on five to six surfaces while using standardized fixturing systems already in place. Blue Photon’s grippers are inserted into new external inserts, designed specifically for the Grip Pallets. The external inserts are available for use with small, medium and large grippers. The new inserts allow for simple installation of the grippers at the required height for maximum holding power. The 150-mm square pallet is available in aluminum and steel with a 52-mm pattern for a quick change receiver that will hold up to nine grippers. The 225-mm square pallet is available in aluminum and steel with a 96-mm pattern for a quick change receiver that will hold up to 21 grippers. The 300-mm square pallet is available in aluminum with a 96-mm pattern for a quick change receiver that will hold up to 33 grippers. Each Grip Pallet includes two handles with multiple color choices and four spacers, with a 25.4-mm standoff that allows for the recommended nominal of 1-mm joint thickness between gripper and part. Optional clamp studs are available for both 52 mm and 96 mm patterns for 5th axis, Jergens, Lang and Mate systems. Part can be removed with a ¼ turn twist of the gripper or hot-water soak. Residual adhesive is removed by using a handheld steamer or a hot-water soak and a light peeling action. Check out these details and more from the IMTS video below. If you missed seeing Blue Photon at IMTS 2022, you can always schedule a customer meeting with with one of our team.
IMTS Preview of Products fRom Blue Photon, Dorian, Horn USA, Mate Workholding and Techniks.9/1/2022  It's that time of year for IMTS! Here's a preview of some of the products that are going to be featured during the International Manufacturing Technology Show September 12-17. You can see all of these new products and talk to the manufacturers in the Tooling & Workholding Systems Pavilion in the West Building Level 3. Blue Photon Workholding
Dorian Tool
Horn USA, Inc.
 Supermini Set. Horn USA is featuring the Supermini tool holder system with face clamping as a set, in response to customer requests for different tooling system heights. With this holder variant, clamping is not carried out via the lateral surface of the cutting insert but via a clamping wedge on the face. This results in a greater holding force on the insert and thus high rigidity of the entire system. This increases repeatability when changing the insert and provides better utilization of the available space. This is a big time saver on Swiss-type lathes, as the user can change the cutting insert without removing the tool holder.  New carbide grades for system DAH8 - Horn USA is expanding its range of carbide grades for its DAH milling system to enable its use for machining a wider range of materials. The new grades SC6A and IG6B complement the tool system for high-feed milling. The SC6A grade is suitable for machining the ISO M material group, as well as ISO S materials as a secondary application. Horn has developed the IG6B grade for machining the ISO P group, while it is also suitable as a multipurpose grade for other material groups. Mate Workholding
Techniks Tool Group
FEATURED PRODUCTS
If you would like to learn more about any of these products or to see a demonstration, get in contact with us and we'll set up some time with you to visit your shop!
Blue Photon’s Grip Pallets are designed for quick change and adhesive workholding of complex and hard-to-hold parts for EDM, grinding, inspection, laser and milling operations Edited by JENNY RUSH, Senior Managing Editor, Modern Machine Shop Blue Photon has added five Grip Pallets and three new inserts for 52- and 96-mm quick-change receiver systems. The addition enables more applications using existing fixturing systems in machining centers. Blue Photon Grip Pallets are designed to simplify how parts are loaded, reduce scrap and increase spindle uptime.
Blue Photon’s grippers are inserted into new external inserts, designed specifically for the Grip Pallets. The external inserts are available for use with small, medium and large grippers. The new inserts allow for simple installation of the grippers at the required height for maximum holding power.
The 150-mm square pallet is available in aluminum and steel with a 52-mm pattern for a quick change receiver that will hold up to nine grippers. The 225-mm square pallet is available in aluminum and steel with a 96-mm pattern for a quick change receiver that will hold up to 21 grippers. The 300-mm square pallet is available in aluminum with a 96-mm pattern for a quick change receiver that will hold up to 33 grippers. Each Grip Pallet includes two handles with multiple color choices and four spacers, with a 25.4-mm standoff that allows for the recommended nominal of 1-mm joint thickness between gripper and part. Optional clamp studs are available for both 52 mm and 96 mm patterns for 5th axis, Jergens, Lang and Mate systems. Part can be removed with a ¼ turn twist of the gripper or hot-water soak. Residual adhesive is removed by using a handheld steamer or a hot-water soak and a light peeling action. Check out the video clip about Blue Photon using ultraviolet light to cure BlueGrip workholding adhesive on the grippers!
Watch the full episode covering workholding on Swarf Talk HERE Swarf and Chips is sponsored by Intoco Special Steels and Alloys. Courtesy of MTD CNC Media and Swarf and Chips. |
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