b'WORKING TOGETHERFor improved machining results, workholding and robots are a good combination.By William LeventonI n recent years, youve likely been hearing a lot about the advantages of automation in machining operations. Re-lated to that topic is an important one that gets far less at-tention: how workholding devices fit into the modern auto-mation cell and the benefits they bring there. Besides im-proving accuracy and repeatability, workholding can give a big boost to machining efficiency and the output of auto-mated systems.Common workholding devices include vises, into which blanks are manually loaded outside the machine tool. In au-tomated systems, the loaded vises are picked up by a robot 20APRIL 2023Workholding.indd 20 3/16/23 11:37 AM'