ABSTRACT:

At the 1984 International Machine Tool Show in Chicago, where machine tool vendors from throughout the world bring their wares for display, one of the most impressive single displays was by a Japanese machine tool company, one of the largest producers of automated machine tools in the world. I was particularly impressed by an automatic tool changer on one of the company's machining centers, which is an automated milling machine that is at the core of small-batch production. This tool changer was a modular system capable of changing up to 700 tools.