Salisbury-based 1st Machine Tool Accessories (1st MTA) has recently been appointed as the sole sales agent in the UK and Ireland for Sinco’s cutting-edge modular zero-point workholding products. The partnership, effective immediately, marks 1st MTA’s exclusive representation of Sinco’s innovative MultiZero range, renowned for its exceptional capabilities, incorporating an industry-leading 273 zero points in a single solution.
With over 40 years of industry expertise, Sinco produces a comprehensive range of more than 250 standard MultiZero modules, encompassing base plates, pallets, and fixtures. This product family offers five distinct pallet types suitable for manual or automatic clamping across various machining applications, including machining centers, die-sink or wire-erosion EDM machines, measuring machines, or assembly stations. Additionally, Sinco tailors fixturing arrangements to meet specific user requirements.
The strategic use of multiple pallets for off-machine workpiece clamping accelerates set-up times to within seconds, maximizing machining uptime. The system ensures outstanding positioning accuracy within 5 µm for stable and repeatable production.
The MultiZero system eliminates unnecessary vice jaws, exposing the maximum workpiece surface and reducing the number of set-ups and operations required for machining or inspection. Zero-point positioning is meticulously achieved through centring elements on the pallets and clamping fixtures, precisely aligning with an array of conical zero-point locations across the entire surface of base plates and pallets at 50 or 100mm intervals.
Key components are securely fastened with an M12 screw boasting 65 kN holding power, ensuring an exceptionally rigid configuration. Pneumatic modules carry a rating of 55 kN, while pallets are firmly secured to the base plate with a force of 260 kN.
Sinco’s extensive accessory range facilitates the secure clamping of even the most complex workpieces, providing versatile solutions from standard clamping elements to flexible vice systems. The system allows for countless workholding permutations, maximizing machine capacity by utilizing the entire machine table, unlike conventional systems with two, four, or six zero-point positions.
MultiZero slot rails can be seamlessly mounted on the underside of existing fixtures, ensuring compatibility with legacy equipment and avoiding unnecessary waste. Various add-ons are available for 5-axis machining or multiple electrode EDM. Additionally, RFID-chipped pallets enable integration into Industry 4.0 environments, facilitating automation, digitalisation, automatic data capture, and production scheduling.