A universal tool mounting system for a machining centre

摘要

A universal tool mounting system for a machining centre is disclosed. The tool mounting system includes a main drum into which mounts a plurality of tool holder unit stations. The main drum acts as a platform to attach, mount, and interchange tool holder units on each station where each tool holder unit is chosen from a designed selection which can turn, mill, bore, drill and rapidly machine components with multicut tools or alternately each performs a combination of these operations and each holds a plurality of tools. The main drum is indexed to position the tool holder unit station with the attached tool holder unit to the operative position, then the tool holder unit station is indexed to position a selected tool to the machining position. The tool holder unit stations also provide live tooling functions to any attached live tooling tool holder units. Tool holder unit stations can also be preindexed.