Apparatus for clamping a work piece at a work station of a machining apparatus in a well defined position

An apparatus for clamping a work piece at a work station of a machining apparatus in a well defined position, comprising:

• a base member to be fixed in the working area of a machining apparatus;
• a work piece carrier member adapted to be put onto said base member and to be fixed thereto;
• said base member and said work piece carrier member each comprising pair wisely cooperating aligning means in order to align the position of said work piece carrier member with respect to said base member along three coordinate axes running perpendicularly to each other as well as with regard to the angular position;
• clamping means adapted to develop a clamping force to fix said work piece carrier member to said base member in said well defined position which is defined by said aligning means;
• said aligning means comprising first aligning element pairs for the definition of the position of the work piece carrier member in the Z-axis in the form of cooperating reference surfaces located at the work piece carrier member and the base member, respectively;
• said aligning means further comprising second aligning element pairs for the definition of the position of the work piece carrier member in the X-axis and third aligning element pairs for the definition of the position of the work piece carrier member in the Y-axis, both said second and third aligning element pairs being in the form of cooperating linear aligning element pairs;
• said cooperating linear alignment pairs each comprising a wedge-shaped centering ruler member and a counterpart member with a matching centering slit;
• said clamping means comprising a plurality of clamping members, each including a clamping pin member fixed to the work piece carrier member and a clamping chuck member located in the base member;
• said work piece carrier member comprising an essentially even, continuous flat surface at its side which faces said base member if said work piece carrier member is clamped to said base member, said flat surface portionally forming one of said reference surfaces;
• each one member of said second and third linear aligning element pairs for the definition of the position of the work piece carrier member in X- and Y-direction being directly connected to said flat surface, and each of said clamping pin members of said clamping means also being directly connected to said flat surface;
• said work piece carrier member being constituted by a plate member having even flat and parallel extending top and lower surfaces;
• and
• said plate member being provided with continuous bores for inserting screw means for fixing said linear aligning elements and said clamping pin members.

An apparatus for clamping a work piece at a work station of a machining apparatus in a well defined position, comprising:

• a base member to be fixed in the working area of a machining apparatus;
• a work piece carrier member adapted to be put onto said base member and to be fixed thereto;
• said base member and said work piece carrier member each comprising pair wisely cooperating aligning means in order to align the position of said work piece carrier member with respect to said base member along three coordinate axes running perpendicularly to each other as well as with regard to the angular position;
• clamping means adapted to develop a clamping force to fix said work piece carrier member to said base member in said well defined position which is defined by said aligning means;
• said aligning means comprising first aligning element pairs for the definition of the position of the work piece carrier member in the Z-axis in the form of cooperating reference surfaces located at the work piece carrier member and the base member, respectively;
• said aligning means further comprising second aligning element pairs for the definition of the position of the work piece carrier member in the X-axis and third aligning element pairs for the definition of the position of the work piece carrier member in the Y-axis, both said second and third aligning element pairs being in the form of cooperating linear aligning element pairs;
• said cooperating linear alignment pairs each comprising a wedge-shaped centering ruler member and a counterpart member with a matching centering slit;
• said clamping means comprising a plurality of clamping members, each including a clamping pin member fixed to the work piece carrier member and a clamping chuck member located in the base member;
• said work piece carrier member comprising an essentially even, continuous flat surface at its side which faces said base member if said work piece carrier member is clamped to said base member, said flat surface portionally forming one of said reference surfaces;
• each one member of said second and third linear aligning element pairs for the definition of the position of the work piece carrier member in X- and Y-direction being directly connected to said flat surface, and each of said clamping pin members of said clamping means also being directly connected to said flat surface;
• and
• said reference surfaces on said base member being in the shape of annular surfaces projecting from the surface of said base member which are concentrically located around said clamping chuck member and which immediately border to the free space thereof provided for the clamping pin member.