An important new quick-change tooling system (US Patent No. 5,788,225). Fixtures can be assembled off of the machine tool, then quickly mounted on a specially designed pallet subplate, with excellent locating repeatability. The same subplate accepts modular tooling plates, blank tooling plates for permanent fixtures, and subplate tooling blocks. Accurate location is provided by two tapered pins in the subplate, together with mating tapered receiver bushings in the tooling plate, similar to the way that a machine pallet itself is located in a horizontal machining center. Pins and receiver bushings are made from hardened tool steel. Minimal contact area between tooling plate and subplate allows quick cleaning when changing fixtures. Tooling plates are available in a full range of standard pallet sizes, either modular or blank. Modular plates are finish ground to tight tolerances, with a grid of multipurpose holes (hole spacing +/-.0008, hole location from receiver bushings +/-.0016).
