AutoVise™ CNC Air Vises

Pneumatic Vises, also known as CNC Pneumatic Vises, Air Vises, or Precision Pneumatic Self Centering Vises, are an automated form of workholding used to hold workpieces during the machining process. The machining process requires precise, repeatable, and incredibly rigid holding capacity to hold a wide variety of parts.

The biggest benefit of Pneumatic CNC Vises is how easy they are to automate. Automated Machine Tending solutions typically already have a wide array of solenoids and air control, so Pneumatic Vises are the go-to choice in CNC Machine Tending Automation systems. In addition to customers using our Pneumatic Self-Centering Air Vises for Spindle Gripper Machine Tending Automation Systems, we also have countless customers using these vises with cobot systems, robot systems, machine cells, and even to streamline manual loading.

These air vises have fully-adjustable clamping force, and are easily adjusted by simply regulating the inlet air supply on the “Clamp” air inlet on the vise. Refer to the Spec-Sheet in the Downloads section of this page for a graph showing how air pressure is linearly correlated with clamping force.

The biggest single advantage of Pneumatic Vises over traditional workholding is how quickly they can be clamped and unclamped. With the flip of a switch, parts can be instantly clamped and unclamped with near-perfect repeatability. Another huge advantage is that, unlike human operators tightening regular vises, Pneumatic Vises clamp with the same clamping force every single cycle.

Gimbel Automation Self-Centering Air Vises have two key differences from other solutions on the market: (1) our Self-Centering Air Vises have an all-steel construction, and (2) the moving top of our air vises is fully serrated, enabling the hard jaws with matching serrations to be adjusted to any size in a few seconds. This means that there is no need for you to buy and machine unique soft jaws for each part you manufacture for your first operation. Instead, use the adjustable hard jaws for your first operation and machine second jaws only for second-op workholding as you need them.