News And Updates

Leader chucks made great in Britain

Tamworth-based workholding specialist, Leader Chuck Systems, has brought the production of its award-winning chucks back to the UK, to the Midlands to be precise. The recently announced move sees the complete precision machining of all Leader products being re-shored to the UK.

Tamworth-based workholding specialist, Leader Chuck Systems, has brought the production of its award-winning chucks back to the UK, to the Midlands to be precise. The recently announced move sees the complete precision machining of all Leader products being re-shored to the UK.

Leader Chuck’s Managing Director, Mark Jones, explains: “We lost our original production facilities at the turn of the century, when John Leader retired from active management Coincidentally the Euro was being introduced in Germany, and that made the precision production support we needed for the workholding products very competitive.”

However, the recent global economic recession slowed orders of the workholding products down, and consequently the price increased. “It was always a goal of Leader to return to UK manufacture, and this shift in pricing provided us with the impetus to evaluate local precision engineering businesses,” Mark Jones states.

After an extensive search a Midlands company that focuses on small batch, high precision work was selected and a two year contract placed for production of Leader’s innovative workholding solutions, such as the company’s unique self-contained power chuck.

Designed to facilitate easy mounting to most types of turning machines, the power chuck only uses pneumatic power to open the jaws so just a single standard workshop air line with 80 psi/5.5 bar is required.

Flexibility, versatility and safety are keynotes of the design. The power chucks feature infinitely variable gripping for both external and internal workholding, avoiding the distortion of fragile components. Leader self-contained power chucks are available in diameters of 80, 100, 130, 190, 220, 260 and 315 mm.

The Compact Static variant is an ingenious space saving workholding solution, which is essential to achieving high productivity for repetitive vertically machined components. Exceptionally low Z axis height provides maximum capacity under machine tool’s spindle, while the ridged construction virtually eliminates all vibration. Fail-safe spring operated clamping also makes the chucks ideal for mounting on pallets.

Mark Jones concludes: “We have always appreciated that British precision engineering is among the greatest in the world. Now we also know that by working together with local suppliers here in the UK we can be globally competitive and again offer bespoke solutions with Leader chucks.”