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This year marks the 50^th anniversary of an innovation for metalworking cutting tools. The Rego-Fix ER collet is a widely used clamping system, and is still produced at the company’s Switzerland plant.

Old E collets were frequently damaged during their removal because of anchoring after machining. In 1972, Fritz Weber and Rego-Fix sought to create a solution for this problem with the development of the ER collet. Weber added a groove to the outer side of the collet, which was then inserted into the eccentric ring of a newly created clamping nut. With his design, users could quickly and easily pull the collet directly out of the holder after unscrewing the nut. Additionally, the ER collet design incorporates more slits, facilitating a wider clamping range of 0.5 mm to 1 mm for increased versatility.

“Our father’s vision that the industry would use millions of ER collets was met with skepticism and disbelief by many,” says Stefan Weber, Vice President of Rego-Fix and son of founder Fritz Weber. Rego-Fix reports, in present day, ER collets are used widely across thousands of machining centers.

According to Richard Weber, CEO of Rego-Fix and son of Fritz Weber, the ER collet is the foundation upon which the company has built and continues to advance its ER concept as well as other tooling innovations over the past decades.