S&H Machine partners with Vanderhorst Brothers to form Raptor Workholding Products, Inc.
June 2, 2009

When S&H Machine acquired its 5-Axis Matsuura MAM72-35V Mill in 2008, the company quickly learned that standardized workholding was the key to leveraging this machine's power. Vanderhorst Brothers (VBI) (a member of the Southern California Manufacturing Group) had designed a compact fixture with a shallow dovetail feature that had worked successfully on their projects. The fixtures were cut in-place on the Matsuura's pallets, and then they were used for production.

The results were incredible: the rigidity of the fixture allowed for very aggressive machining, while the standardization (most of the pallets were loaded with dedicated identical fixtures) eliminated hours of workholding design and setup time.

The system was so impressive that S&H Machine decided to tool our machine with the same dovetail fixtures.  VBI shared the design of the fixtures, and S&H offered several improvements.  After working together closely to further refine this system, they decided to make it available to the entire manufacturing industry through a new company:  Raptor Workholding Products, Inc.

Raptor Workholding is committed to delivering standard fixtures that eliminate the need for fixture design, fabrication, and set-up. It’s customers use this advantage to drastically reduce their lead time and focus on their primary concern: precision machining.

More information about Raptor Workholding can be found at http://www.raptorworkholding.com.
A very informative article from Modern Machine Shop magazine can also be found here.