Confabulations

With the engineering industry’s constantly advancing techniques and the wide variety of products now developed by machinery it’s perhaps unsurprising that specialist equipment has been designed to aid the processes.  Large robotic machines for building cars or computer programed cutting devices used to shape steel are becoming commonplace in factories, and even rotary tables are becoming a device that a growing number of people are aware of. If we dig a little deeper though, you might hear of chuck jaws, which are one of the unsung heroes of engineering. Here’s a look at chuck jaws and their ever growing number of uses.

What Are Chuck Jaws?

Before we can look at the applications for chuck jaws it is important to learn exactly what they are. In fact there is a very good chance you will have come into contact with chuck jaws before, whilst at home doing some DIY, using a hand or electric drill. Chuck jaws are the metal teeth located at the front of a drill, that bite down onto the drill bit, holding it firmly in place. Chuck jaws used in engineering are far larger than the small teeth in a domestic drill through, albeit the principal is the same. Used in industry, they are vastly larger and designed so they can be removed from the equipment they are housed in if damaged, worn or if a different type of chuck jaw is needed. They are often held in place by a retaining screw, although they can be held magnetically or via a pressure vacuum. They are often designed with quick release in mind, so as not to hold up development. Typically constructed from high strength metals, they have to bite the object they are holding firmly, in order for it not to slip and to be used efficiently. The chuck jaws themselves are normally fixed to a cylindrical platform in a tri-star shape, which is then wound tight around the item they are gripping. Although normally seen in a pattern of three, any number of chuck jaws can be used depending on their application.

What Do They Do?

Although briefly touching on their application as a device that holds something in place, it’s important to say that chuck jaws don’t just hold drill bits. In fact chuck jaws can hold any number of items, including unusual shaped pieces. Often the chuck jaws and the items they are holding spin, as in a drills application, although the jaws don’t always rotate and can be used to purely hold an item in place.
It’s interesting to learn about chuck jaws and how they are an integral, yet perhaps less well known engineering tool. Next time you’re doing some DIY at home perhaps you’ll think about chuck jaws when placing a new bit in the drill.