ATS Systems Ultimate Chuck Installation and Operations Manual
6.2
Operator Training on the Ultimate Chuck model UC 2
The following is taken from the Installation & Training checklist used by ATS Systems
Service Engineers when installing Ultimate Chucks and training operators. We
recommend that shop supervisors use this document to assist them to train new
operators when they are first assigned to use the Ultimate Chuck. Most of what is
presented here applies to all types of power chucks.
High speed lathes and chucks are perhaps the most hazardous equipment in most machine shops.
Lathes and chucks have been designed and built with your safety in mind and have many safety features,
guards and interfaces. But, the only way to prevent accidents and possible injury is to understand the
hazards and to follow all the proper rules, recommendations, and general and specific safe shop practices.
People are regularly injured and even killed as a result of "accidents" involving chucks. 99% of the time
the accident is the result of operator error or lack of experience and training, not as a result of any failure
of the equipment. Please listen carefully, ask questions and refuse to operate this equipment if you are
unsure how to operate it safely. The life you save may be your own.
The bad things that can happen and the most common causes.
1. If a jaw were to come off of a spinning chuck it will become a projectile traveling in a straight line
and could penetrate the heaviest guard. There is a high likelihood of serious injury here and fatalities
are not uncommon.
Possible causes:
- Bolts too short, inadequate thread engagement, threads strip off.
- Bolts not properly torqued tight and come loose.
- Wrong grade of bolts and they break.
- Excessively tall jaws and even moderate grip forces can put severe tension on bolts and cause them to
break.
- RPM way too high for an oversize jaw and the bolts actually shear. (Watch out when using constant
surface feet programming!)
- Base jaw not engaged to "Safe" zone
- Poor quality or poor design jaw actually breaks and a portion of the jaw becomes a projectile. An
example would be some types of welded jaws, cast jaws that can break, or a hard jaw that is improperly
hardened (through hardened) and becomes brittle.
2. If a part is not securely clamped it can be thrown from the chuck. Unless it is struck by a spinning
jaw as it exits it will not be traveling in a straight line and there is a good chance a heavy guard will
stop it but it may not. Fatal accidents have happened.
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