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LATHE

MACHINE


INTRODUCTION :
A lathe is a machine tool which rotates the workpiece on its axis to perform various
operations such as cutting, sanding,knurling, drilling, or deformation with tools that are
applied to the workpiece to create an object which has symmetry about an axis of rotation.
Lathes are used in woodturning, metalworking, metal spinning, and glass-working. Lathes
can be used to shape pottery, the best-known design being the potter's wheel. Most suitably
equipped metalworking lathes can also be used to produce most solids of revolution, plane
surfaces and screw threads or helices. Ornamental lathes can produce three-dimensional
solids of incredible complexity. The material can be held in place by either one or
two centers, at least one of which can be moved horizontally to accommodate varying
material lengths. Other work-holding methods include clamping the work about the axis of
rotation using a chuck or collet, or to a faceplate, using clamps or dogs.
Examples of objects that can be produced on a lathe include candlestick holders, gun
barrels, cue sticks, table legs, bowls, baseball bats, musical instruments
(especially woodwind instruments), crankshafts and camshafts


HISTORY :




The lathe is an ancient tool, dating at least to ancient Egypt and known and used in
Assyria and ancient Greece.
The origin of turning dates to around 1300 BC when the Ancient Egyptians first developed a
two-person lathe. One person would turn the wood work piece with a rope while the other
used a sharp tool to cut shapes in the wood. Ancient Rome improved the Egyptian design
with the addition of a turning bow. In the Middle Ages a pedal replaced hand-operated
turning, freeing both the craftsman's hands to hold the woodturning tools. The pedal was
usually connected to a pole, often a straight-grained sapling. The system today is called the
"spring pole" lathe. Spring pole lathes were in common use into the early 20th century.
During the Industrial Revolution, mechanized power generated by water wheels or steam
engines was transmitted to the lathe via line shafting, allowing faster and easier work.
Metalworking lathes evolved into heavier machines with thicker, more rigid parts. Between
the late 19th and mid-20th centuries, individual electric motors at each lathe replaced line
shafting as the power source. Beginning in the 1950s, servomechanism were applied to the
control of lathes and other machine tools via numerical control, which often was coupled with
computers to yield computerized numerical control. Today manually controlled and CNC
lathes coexist in the manufacturing industries.
PARTS :


A lathe may or may not have a stand (or legs), which sits on the floor and elevates the lathe
bed to a working height. Some lathes are small and sit on a workbench or table, and do not
have a stand.
Almost all lathes have a bed, which is (almost always) a horizontal beam
(although CNC lathes commonly have an inclined or vertical beam for a bed to ensure
that swarf, or chips, falls free of the bed). Woodturning lathes specialized for turning large
bowls often have no bed or tail stock, merely a free-standing headstock and a cantilevered
tool rest.
At one end of the bed (almost always the left, as the operator faces the lathe) is
a headstock. The headstock contains high-precision spinning bearings. Rotating within the
bearings is a horizontal axle, with an axis parallel to the bed, called the spindle. Spindles
are often hollow, and have exterior threads and/or an interior Morse taper on the "inboard"
(i.e., facing to the right / towards the bed) by which work-holding accessories may be
mounted to the spindle. Spindles may also have exterior threads and/or an interior taper at
their "outboard" (i.e., facing away from the bed) end, and/or may have a hand-wheel or other
accessory mechanism on their outboard end. Spindles are powered, and impart motion to
the workpiece.
Headstock :

The headstock (H1) houses the main spindle (H4),
speed change mechanism (H2,H3), and change gears (H10). The headstock is required to
be made as robust as possible due to the cutting forces involved, which can distort a lightly
built housing, and induce harmonic vibrations that will transfer through to the workpiece,
reducing the quality of the finished workpiece.
The main spindle is generally hollow to allow long bars to extend through to the work area.
This reduces preparation and waste of material. The spindle runs in precision bearings and
is fitted with some means of attaching workholding devices such as chucks or faceplates.
This end of the spindle usually also has an included taper, frequently a Morse taper, to allow
the insertion of tapers and centers. On older machines the spindle was directly driven by
a flat belt pulley with lower speeds available by manipulating the bull gear. Later machines
use a gear box driven by a dedicated electric motor. A fully geared head allows the operator
to select speeds entirely through the gearbox.

Bed :
The bed is a robust base that connects to the headstock
and permits the carriage and tailstock to be aligned parallel with the axis of the spindle. This
is facilitated by hardened and ground ways which restrain the carriage and tailstock in a set
track. The carriage travels by means of a rack and pinion system, leadscrew of accurate
pitch, or feedscrew.
Types of beds include inverted "V" beds, flat beds, and combination "V" and flat beds. "V"
and combination beds are used for precision and light duty work, while flat beds are used for
heavy duty work.

Feed & lead screw :


The feedscrew (H8) is a long driveshaft that allows a series of gears to drive the carriage
mechanisms. These gears are located in the apron of the carriage. Both the feedscrew
and leadscrew (H7) are driven by either the change gears (on the quadrant) or an
intermediate gearbox known as a quick change gearbox (H6) or Norton gearbox. These
intermediate gears allow the correct ratio and direction to be set for cutting threads or worm
gears. Tumbler gears (operated by H5) are provided between the spindle and gear train
along with a quadrant plate that enables a gear train of the correct ratio and direction to be
introduced. This provides a constant relationship between the number of turns the spindle
makes, to the number of turns the leadscrew makes. This ratio allows screwthreads to be cut
on the workpiece without the aid of a die.
Some lathes have only one leadscrew that serves all carriage-moving purposes. For screw
cutting, a half nut is engaged to be driven by the leadscrew's thread; and for general power
feed, a key engages with a keyway cut into the leadscrew to drive a pinion along a rack that
is mounted along the lathe bed.
The leadscrew will be manufactured to either imperial or metric standards and will require a
conversion ratio to be introduced to create thread forms from a different family. To accurately
convert from one thread form to the other requires a 127-tooth gear, or on lathes not large
enough to mount one, an approximation may be used. Multiples of 3 and 7 giving a ratio of
63:1 can be used to cut fairly loose threads. This conversion ratio is often built into thequick
change gearboxes.
The precise ratio required to convert a lathe with an Imperial (inch) leadscrew to metric
(millimeter) threading is 100 / 127 = 0.7874... . The best approximation with the fewest total
teeth is very often 37 / 47 = 0.7872... . This transposition gives a constant -0.020 percent
error over all customary and model-maker's metric pitches (0.25, 0.30, 0.35, 0.40, 0.45, 0.50,
0.60, 0.70, 0.75, 0.80, 1.00, 1.25, 1.50, 1.75, 2.00, 2.50, 3.00, 3.50, 4.00, 4.50, 5.00, 5.50
and 6.00mm).


Carriage :
in its simplest form
the carriage holds the tool bit and moves it longitudinally (turning) or perpendicularly (facing)
under the control of the operator. The operator moves the carriage manually via
the handwheel (5a) or automatically by engaging the feed shaft with the carriage feed
mechanism (5c). This provides some relief for the operator as the movement of the carriage
becomes power assisted. The handwheels (2a, 3b, 5a) on the carriage and its related slides
are usually calibrated, both for ease of use and to assist in making reproducible cuts. The
carriage typically comprises a top casting, known as the saddle (4), and a side casting,
known as the apron (5)

Cross slide :
The cross-slide (3) rides on the carriage and has a feedscrew that travels perpendicular to
the main spindle axis. This permits facing operations to be performed, and the depth of cut
to be adjusted. This feedscrew can be engaged, through a gear train, to the feed shaft
(mentioned previously) to provide automated 'power feed' movement to the cross-slide. On
most lathes, only one direction can be engaged at a time as an interlock mechanism will shut
out the second gear train.

Compound rest :
The compound rest (or top slide) (2) is usually where the tool post is mounted. It provides
a smaller amount of movement (less than the cross-slide) along its axis via another
feedscrew. The compound rest axis can be adjusted independently of the carriage or cross-
slide. It is used for turning tapers, to control depth of cut when screwcutting or precision
facing, or to obtain finer feeds (under manual control) than the feed shaft permits. Usually,
the compound rest has a protractor marked in its base (2b), enabling the operator to adjust
its axis to precise angles.


Toolpost :
The tool bit is mounted in the toolpost (1) which may be
of the American lantern style, traditional four-sided square style, or a quick-change style
such as the multifix arrangement pictured. The advantage of a quick change set-up is to
allow an unlimited number of tools to be used (up to the number of holders available) rather
than being limited to one tool with the lantern style, or to four tools with the four-sided type.
Interchangeable tool holders allow all tools to be preset to a center height that does not
change, even if the holder is removed from the machine.


Tailstock :
The tailstock is a toolholder directly mounted on the
spindle axis, opposite the headstock. The spindle (T5) does not rotate but does travel
longitudinally under the action of a leadscrew and handwheel (T1). The spindle includes
a taper to hold drill bits, centers and other tooling. The tailstock can be positioned along the
bed and clamped (T6) in position as required. There is also provision to offset the
tailstock (T4) from the spindles axis, this is useful for turning small tapers.
The image shows a reduction gear box (T2) between the handwheel and spindle, this is a
feature found only in the larger center lathes, where large drills may necessitate the extra
leverage. The tool bit is normally made of HSS, cobalt steel or carbide



ACCESSORIES :





Unless a workpiece has a taper machined onto it which perfectly matches the internal
taper in the spindle, or has threads which perfectly match the external threads on the spindle
(two conditions which rarely exist), an accessory must be used to mount a workpiece to the
spindle.
A workpiece may be bolted or screwed to a faceplate, a large, flat disk that mounts to the
spindle. In the alternative, faceplate dogs may be used to secure the work to the faceplate.
A workpiece may be mounted on a mandrel, or circular work clamped in a three- or four-jaw
chuck. For irregular shaped workpieces it is usual to use a four jaw (independent moving
jaws) chuck. These holding devices mount directly to the Lathe headstock spindle.
In precision work, and in some classes of repetition work, cylindrical workpieces are usually
held in a collet inserted into the spindle and secured either by a draw-bar, or by a collet
closing cap on the spindle. Suitable collets may also be used to mount square or hexagonal
workpieces. In precision toolmaking work such collets are usually of the draw-in variety,
where, as the collet is tightened, the workpiece moves slightly back into the headstock,
whereas for most repetition work the dead length variety is preferred, as this ensures that
the position of the workpiece does not move as the collet is tightened.
A soft workpiece (wooden) may be pinched between centers by using a spur drive at the
headstock, which bites into the wood and imparts torque to it.


A soft dead center is used in
the headstock spindle as the work rotates with the centre. Because the centre is soft it can
be trued in place before use. The included angle is 60. Traditionally, a hard dead center is
used together with suitable lubricant in the tailstock to support the workpiece. In modern
practice the dead center is frequently replaced by a live center, as it turns freely with the
workpiece usually on ball bearings reducing the frictional heat, especially important at
high speeds. When clear facing a long length of material it must be supported at both ends.
This can be achieved by the use of a traveling or fixed steady. If a steady is not available,
the end face being worked on may be supported by a dead (stationary) half center. A half
center has a flat surface machined across a broad section of half of its diameter at the
pointed end. A small section of the tip of the dead center is retained to ensure concentricity.
Lubrication must be applied at this point of contact and tail stock pressure reduced. A lathe
carrier orlathe dog may also be employed when turning between two centers.
[2]

In woodturning, one variation of a live center is a cup center, which is a cone of metal
surrounded by an annular ring of metal that decreases the chances of the workpiece
splitting.
A circular metal plate with even spaced holes around the periphery, mounted to the spindle,
is called an "index plate". It can be used to rotate the spindle to a precise angle, then lock it
in place, facilitating repeated auxiliary operations done to the workpiece.
Other accessories, including items such as taper turning attachments, knurling tools, vertical
slides, fixed and traveling steadies, etc., increase the versatility of a lathe and the range of
work it may perform.

MODES OF USE :



When a workpiece is fixed between the headstock and the tail-stock, it is said to
be "between centers". When a workpiece is supported at both ends, it is more stable, and
more force may be applied to the workpiece, via tools, at a right angle to the axis of rotation,
without fear that the workpiece may break loose.
When a workpiece is fixed only to the spindle at the headstock end, the work is said to be
"face work". When a workpiece is supported in this manner, less force may be applied to the
workpiece, via tools, at a right angle to the axis of rotation, lest the workpiece rip free. Thus,
most work must be done axially, towards the headstock, or at right angles, but gently.
When a workpiece is mounted with a certain axis of rotation, worked, then remounted with a
new axis of rotation, this is referred to as "eccentric turning" or "multi-axis turning". The result
is that various cross sections of the workpiece are rotationally symmetric, but the workpiece
as a whole is not rotationally symmetric. This technique is used for camshafts, various types
of chair legs







MAJOR CATAGORIES :
Woodworking lathe :
Woodworking lathes are the oldest variety. All other varieties
are descended from these simple lathes. An adjustable horizontal metal rail - the tool rest -
between the material and the operator accommodates the positioning of shaping tools,
which are usually hand-held. With wood, it is common practice to press and slide sandpaper
against the still-spinning object after shaping to smooth the surface made with the metal
shaping tools.
There are also woodworking lathes for making bowls and plates, which have no horizontal
metal rail, as the bowl or plate needs only to be held by one side from a metal face plate.
Without this rail, there is very little restriction to the width of the piece being turned.

Metalworking lathe :
In a metalworking lathe, metal is removed from the
workpiece using a hardened cutting tool, which is usually fixed to a solid moveable
mounting, either a tool-post or a turret, which is then moved against the workpiece using
handwheels and/or computer controlled motors. These (cutting) tools come in a wide range
of sizes and shapes depending upon their application. Some common styles are diamond,
round, square and triangular.
The tool-post is operated by lead-screws that can accurately position the tool in a variety of
planes. The tool-post may be driven manually or automatically to produce the roughing and
finishing cuts required to turn the workpiece to the desired shape and dimensions, or for
cutting threads, worm gears, etc. Cutting fluid may also be pumped to the cutting site to
provide cooling, lubrication and clearing of swarf from the workpiece. Some lathes may be
operated under control of a computer for mass production of parts

Cue lathe :
Cue lathes function similar to turning and spinning lathes
allowing for a perfectly radially-symmetrical cut for billiard cues. They can also be used to
refinish cues that have been worn over the years.

Glass-working lathe :
Glass-working lathes are similar in design to other
lathes, but differ markedly in how the workpiece is modified. Glass-working lathes slowly
rotate a hollow glass vessel over a fixed or variable temperature flame. The source of the
flame may be either hand-held, or mounted to a banjo/cross slide that can be moved along
the lathe bed. The flame serves to soften the glass being worked, so that the glass in a
specific area of the workpiece becomes malleable, and subject to forming either by inflation
("glassblowing"), or by deformation with a heat resistant tool. Such lathes usually have two
head-stocks with chucks holding the work, arranged so that they both rotate together in
unison. Air can be introduced through the headstock chuck spindle for glassblowing. The
tools to deform the glass and tubes to blow (inflate) the glass are usually handheld.
In diamond turning, a computer-controlled lathe with a diamond-tipped tool is used to make
precision optical surfaces in glass or other optical materials. Unlike conventional optical
grinding, complex aspheric surfaces can be machined easily. Instead of the dovetailed ways
used on the tool slide of a metal turning lathe, the ways typically float on air bearings and the
position of the tool is measured by optical interferometry to achieve the necessary standard
of precision for optical work. The finished work piece usually requires a small amount
subsequent polishing by conventional techniques to achieve a finished surface suitably
smooth for use in a lens, but the rough grinding time is significantly reduced for complex
lenses.
Metal spinning lathe :
In metal spinning, a disk of sheet metal is held
perpendicularly to the main axis of the lathe, and tools with polished tips (spoons) are hand
held, but levered by hand against fixed posts, to develop large amounts of torque/pressure
that deform the spinning sheet of metal.
Metal spinning lathes are almost as simple as woodturning lathes (and, at this point, lathes
being used for metal spinning almost always are woodworking lathes). Typically, metal
spinning lathes require a user-supplied rotationally symmetric mandrel, usually made of
wood, which serves as a template onto which the workpiece is molded (non-symmetric
shape scan be done, but it is a very advanced technique). For example, if you want to make
a sheet metal bowl, you need a solid chunk of wood in the shape of the bowl; if you want to
make avase, you need a solid template of a vase, etc.
Given the advent of high speed, high pressure, industrial die forming, metal spinning is less
common now than it once was, but still a valuable technique for producing one-off prototypes
or small batches where die forming would be uneconomical

Ornamental turning lathe :
The ornamental turning lathe was developed around
the same time as the industrial screw-cutting lathe in the nineteenth century. It was used not
for making practical objects, but fordecorative work - ornamental turning. By using
accessories such as the horizontal and vertical cutting frames, eccentric chuck and elliptical
chuck, solids of extraordinary complexity may be produced by various generative
procedures.

A special purpose lathe, the Rose engine lathe is also used for ornamental turning, in
particular for engine turning, typically in precious metals, for example to decorate pocket
watch cases. As well as a wide range of accessories, these lathes usually have complex
dividing arrangements to allow the exact rotation of the mandrel. Cutting is usually carried
out by rotating cutters, rather than directly by the rotation of the work itself. Because of the
difficulty of polishing such work, the materials turned, such as wood or ivory, are usually
quite soft, and the cutter has to be exceptionally sharp. The finest ornamental lathes are
generally considered to be those made by Holtzapffel around the turn of the 19th century

Reducing lathe :
Many types of lathes can be equipped with accessory
components to allow them to reproduce an item: the original item is mounted on one spindle,
the blank is mounted on another, and as both turn in synchronized manner, one end of an
arm "reads" the original and the other end of the arm "carves" the duplicate.
A reducing lathe is a specialized lathe that is designed with this feature, and which
incorporates a mechanism similar to a pantograph, so that when the "reading" end of the
arm reads a detail that measures one inch (for example), the cutting end of the arm creates
an analogous detail that is (for example) one quarter of an inch (a 4:1 reduction, although
given appropriate machinery and appropriate settings, any reduction ratio is possible).
Reducing lathes are used in coin-making, where a plaster original (or an epoxy master made
from the plaster original, or a copper shelled master made from the plaster original, etc.) is
duplicated and reduced on the reducing lathe, generating a master die.

Rotary lathe :
A lathe in which softwood, like spruce or pine, or hardwood,
like birch, logs are turned against a very sharp blade and peeled off in one continuous or
semi-continuous roll. Invented by Immanuel Nobel
Watchermakers lathe :
Watch makers lathes are delicate but precise
metalworking lathes, usually without provision for screw cutting, and are still used
by horologists for work such as the turning of balance shafts. A handheld tool called
a graver is often used in preference to a slide mounted tool. The original watchmaker's turns
was a simple dead-center lathe with a moveable rest and two loose head-stocks. The
workpiece would be rotated by a bow, typically of horsehair, wrapped around it.

LATHES USED IN INDUSTRIES :
Turret lathe :
The turret lathe is a form of metalworking
lathe that is used for repetitive production of duplicate parts, which by the nature of their
cutting process are usually interchangeable. It evolved from earlier lathes with the addition of
the turret, which is an index able tool holder that allows multiple cutting operations to be
performed, each with a different cutting tool, in easy, rapid succession, with no need for the
operator to perform setup tasks in between, such as installing or uninstalling tools, nor to
control the toolpath. The latter is due to the toolpath's being controlled by the machine, either
in jig-like fashion, via the mechanical limits placed on it by the turret's slide and stops, or
via electronically-directed servomechanisms for computer numerical control (CNC) lathe.




Engine lathe :
The terms center lathe, engine lathe,
and bench lathe all refer to a basic type of lathe that may be considered the archetypical
class of metalworking lathe most often used by the general machinist or machining hobbyist.
The name bench lathe implies a version of this class small enough to be mounted on a
workbench (but still full-featured, and larger than mini-lathes or micro-lathes). The
construction of a center lathe is detailed above, but depending on the year of manufacture,
size, price range, or desired features, even these lathes can vary widely between models.
Engine lathe is the name applied to a traditional late-19th-century or 20th-century lathe with
automatic feed to the cutting tool, as opposed to early lathes which were used with hand-
held tools, or lathes with manual feed only. The usage of "engine" here is in the mechanical-
device sense, not the prime-mover sense, as in thesteam engines which were the standard
industrial power source for many years. The works would have one large steam engine
which would provide power to all the machines via a line shaft system of belts. Therefore
early engine lathes were generally 'cone heads', in that the spindle usually had attached to it
a multi-step pulley called a cone pulley designed to accept a flat belt. Different spindle
speeds could be obtained by moving the flat belt to different steps on the cone pulley. Cone-
head lathes usually had a countershaft (layshaft) on the back side of the cone which could
be engaged to provide a lower set of speeds than was obtainable by direct belt drive. These
gears were called back gears. Larger lathes sometimes had two-speed back gears which
could be shifted to provide a still lower set of speeds





Toolroom lathe :
A toolroom lathe is a lathe optimized
for toolroom work. It is essentially just a top-of-the-line center lathe, with all of the best
optional features that may be omitted from less expensive models, such as a collet closer,
taper attachment, and others. There has also been an implication over the years of selective
assembly and extra fitting, with every care taken in the building of a toolroom model to make
it the smoothest-running, most-accurate version of the machine that can be built. However,
within one brand, the quality difference between a regular model and its corresponding
toolroom model depends on the builder and in some cases has been partly marketing
psychology. For name-brand machine tool builders who made only high-quality tools, there
wasn't necessarily any lack of quality in the base-model product for the "luxury model" to
improve upon. In other cases, especially when comparing different brands, the quality
differential between (1) an entry-level center lathe built to compete on price, and (2) a
toolroom lathe meant to compete only on quality and not on price, can be objectively
demonstrated by measuring TIR, vibration, etc. In any case, because of their fully ticked-off
option list and (real or implied) higher quality, toolroom lathes are more expensive than
entry-level center lathes.

Gangtool lathe :

A gang-tool lathe is one that has a row of tools set up on its cross-slide, which is long and
flat and is similar to a milling machine table. The idea is essentially the same as with turret
lathes: to set up multiple tools and then easily index between them for each part-cutting
cycle. Instead of being rotary like a turret, the indexable tool group is linear.


Multispindle lathe :

Multispindle lathes have more than one spindle and automated control (whether
via cams or CNC). They are production machines specializing in high-volume production.
The smaller types are usually called screw
machines, while the larger variants are usually called automatic chucking
machines,automatic chuckers, or simply chuckers. Screw machines usually work from
bar stock, while chuckers automatically chuck up individual blanks from a magazine. Typical
minimum profitable production lot size on a screw machine is in the thousands of parts due
to the large setup time. Once set up, a screw machine can rapidly and efficiently produce
thousands of parts on a continuous basis with high accuracy, low cycle time, and very little
human intervention. (The latter two points drive down the unit cost per interchangeable part
much lower than could be achieved without these machines.)
Rotary transfer machines might also be included under the category of multispindle lathes,
although they defy traditional classification. They are large, expensive, modular machine
tools with many CNC axes that combine the capabilities of lathes, milling machines, and
pallet changers.




Combination lathe :

A combination lathe, often known as a 3-in-1 machine, introduces drilling or milling
operations into the design of the lathe. These machines have a milling column rising up
above the lathe bed, and they utilize the carriage and topslide as the X and Y axes for the
milling column. The 3-in-1 name comes from the idea of having a lathe, milling machine,
and drill press all in one affordable machine tool. These are exclusive to the hobbyist
and MROmarkets, as they inevitably involve compromises in size, features, rigidity, and
precision in order to remain affordable. Nevertheless, they meet the demand of their niche
quite well, and are capable of high accuracy given enough time and skill. They may be found
in smaller, non-machine-oriented businesses where the occasional small part must be
machined, especially where the exacting tolerances of expensive toolroom machines,
besides being unaffordable, would be overkill for the application anyway from an engineering
perspective.
Mini lathe and micro lathe :
Multispindle lathes have more than one spindle
and automated control (whether via cams or CNC). They are production machines
specializing in high-volume production. The smaller types are usually called screw
machines, while the larger variants are usually called automatic chucking
machines,automatic chuckers, or simply chuckers. Screw machines usually work from
bar stock, while chuckers automatically chuck up individual blanks from a magazine. Typical
minimum profitable production lot size on a screw machine is in the thousands of parts due
to the large setup time. Once set up, a screw machine can rapidly and efficiently produce
thousands of parts on a continuous basis with high accuracy, low cycle time, and very little
human intervention. (The latter two points drive down the unit cost per interchangeable part
much lower than could be achieved without these machines.

CNC turning lathe :
Computer numerical controlled (CNC)
lathes are rapidly replacing the older production lathes (multispindle, etc.) due to their ease
of setting, operation, repeatability and accuracy. They are designed to use
modern carbide tooling and fully use modern processes. The part may be designed and the
tool paths programmed by the CAD/CAM process or manually by the programmer, and the
resulting file uploaded to the machine, and once set and trialled the machine will continue to
turn out parts under the occasional supervision of an operator.
The machine is controlled electronically via a computer menu style interface, the program
may be modified and displayed at the machine, along with a simulated view of the process.
The setter/operator needs a high level of skill to perform the process, however the
knowledge base is broader compared to the older production machines where intimate
knowledge of each machine was considered essential. These machines are often set and
operated by the same person, where the operator will supervise a small number of machines
(cell).
The design of a CNC lathe varies with different manufacturers, but they all have some
common elements. The turret holds the tool holders and indexes them as needed, the
spindle holds the workpiece and there are slides that let the turret move in multiple axis
simultaneously. The machines are often totally enclosed, due in large part to Occupational
health and safety (OH&S) issues.
With rapid growth in this industry, different CNC lathe manufacturers use different user
interfaces which sometimes makes it difficult for operators as they have to be acquainted
with them. With the advent of cheap computers, free operating systems such as Linux,
and open source CNC software, the entry price of CNC machines has plummeted




Swiss turning lathe :

A Swiss-style lathe is a specific design of lathe
providing extreme accuracy (sometimes holding tolerances as small as a few tenths of a
thousandth of an incha few microns). A Swiss-style lathe holds the workpiece with both
a collet and a guide bushing. The collet sits behind the guide bushing, and the tools sit in
front of the guide bushing, holding stationary on the Z axis. To cut lengthwise along the part,
the tools will move in and the material itself will move back and forth along the Z axis. This
allows all the work to be done on the material near the guide bushing where it is more rigid,
making them ideal for working on slender workpieces as the part is held firmly with little
chance of deflection or vibration occurring. This style of lathe is commonly used under CNC
control.
Most CNC Swiss-style lathes today use one or two main spindles plus one or two back
spindles (secondary spindles). The main spindle is used with the guide bushing for the main
machining operations. The secondary spindle is located behind the part, aligned on the Z
axis. In simple operation it picks up the part as it is cut off, and accepts it for second
operations, then ejects it into a bin, eliminating the need to have an operator manually
change each part, as is often the case with standard CNC turning centers. This makes them
very efficient, as these machines are capable of fast cycle times, producing simple parts in
one cycle (i.e., no need for a second machine to finish the part with second operations), in
as little as 1015 seconds. This makes them ideal for large production runs of small-
diameter parts.
Additionally, as many Swiss lathes incorporate a secondary spindle, or 'sub-spindle', they
also incorporate 'live tooling'. Live tools are rotary cutting tools that are powered by a small
motor independently of the spindle motor(s). Live tools increase the intricacy of components
that can be manufactured by the Swiss lathe. For instance, automatically producing a part
with a hole drilled perpendicular to the main axis (the axis of rotation of the spindles) is very
economical with live tooling, and similarly uneconomical if done as a secondary operation
after machining by the Swiss lathe is complete. A 'secondary operation' is a machining
operation requiring a partially completed part to be secured in a second machine to complete
the manufacturing process.

LATHE OPERATIONS :
Turning :

Turning is the process whereby a single point cutting tool is parallel to the surface. It
can be done manually, in a traditional form of lathe, which frequently requires continuous
supervision by the operator, or by using a computer controlled and automated lathe which
does not. This type of machine tool is referred to as having computer numerical control,
better known as CNC. and is commonly used with many other types of machine tool besides
the lathe.
When turning, a piece of material (wood, metal, plastic, or stone) is rotated and a cutting
tool is traversed along 2 axes of motion to produce precise diameters and depths. Turning
can be either on the outside of the cylinder or on the inside (also known as boring) to
produce tubular components to various geometries. Although now quite rare, early lathes
could even be used to produce complex geometric figures, even the platonic solids; although
until the advent of CNC it had become unusual to use one for this purpose for the last three
quarters of the twentieth century. It is said that the lathe is the only machine tool that can
reproduce itself.

Facing:
Facing is part of the turning process. It involves
moving the cutting tool at right angles to the axis of rotation of the rotating workpiece.
[1]
This
can be performed by the operation of the cross-slide, if one is fitted, as distinct from the
longitudinal feed (turning). It is frequently the first operation performed in the production of
the workpiece, and often the last- hence the phrase "ending up"

Parting :

This process is used to create deep grooves which will remove a
completed or part-complete component from its parent stock.

Grooving :
Grooving is like parting, except that
grooves are cut to a specific depth by a form tool instead of severing a completed/part-
complete component from the stock. Grooving can be performed on internal and external
surfaces, as well as on the face of the part (face grooving or trepanning).


Boring :
i.e. the machining of internal cylindrical forms (generating)
a) by mounting workpiece to the spindle via a chuck or faceplate b) by mounting workpiece
onto the cross slide and placing cutting tool into the chuck. This work is suitable for castings
that are to awkward to mount in the face plate. On long bed lathes large workpiece can be
bolted to a fixture on the bed and a shaft passed between two lugs on the workpiece and
these lugs can be bored out to size. A limited application but one that is available to the
skilled turner/machinist




Drilling :
drilling is to remove material from the inside of a
workpiece. This process utilizes standard drill bits held stationary in the tail stock or tool
turret of the lathe.
A drill is a tool fitted with a cutting tool attachment or driving tool attachment, usually a drill
bit or driver bit, used for drilling holes in various materials or fastening various materials
together with the use of fasteners. The attachment is gripped by a chuck at one end of the
drill and rotated while pressed against the target material. The tip, and sometimes edges, of
the cutting tool does the work of cutting into the target material. This may be slicing off thin
shavings (twist drills or auger bits), grinding off small particles (oil drilling), crushing and
removing pieces of the workpiece (SDS masonry drill), countersinking, counterboring, or
other operations.
Drills are commonly used in woodworking, metalworking, construction and do-it-
yourself projects. Specially designed drills are also used in medicine, space missions and
other applications. Drills are available with a wide variety of performance characteristics,
such as power and capacity



Knurling :
The cutting of a serrated pattern onto the surface of a
part to use as a hand grip using a special purpose knurling tool. Knurling allows hands or
fingers to get a better grip on the knurled object than would be provided by the originally
smooth metal surface. Occasionally, the knurled pattern is a series of straight ridges or
a helix of "straight" ridges rather than the more-usual criss-cross pattern.

Knurling may also be used as a repair method: because a rolled-in knurled surface has
raised-up areas surrounding the depressed areas, these raised areas can make up for wear
on the part. In the days when labor was cheap and parts expensive, this repair method was
feasible on pistons of internal combustion engines, where the skirt of a worn piston was
expanded back to the nominal size using a knurling process. As auto parts have become
less expensive, knurling has become less prevalent than it once was, and is specifically
recommended against by performance engine builders


Reaming :

A reamer is a metalworking tool used to create an accurate sized hole. The process is
called reaming. They may be used as a hand tool or in a machine tool, such as a milling
machine or drill press. A typical reamer consists of a set of parallel straight or helical cutting
edges along the length of a cylindrical body. Each cutting edge is ground at a slight angle
and with a slight undercut below the cutting edge. Reamers must combine both hardness in
the cutting edges, for long life, and toughness, so that the tool does not fail under the normal
forces of use. They should only be used to remove small amounts of material. This ensures
a long life for the reamer and a superior finish to the hole.
The spiral may be clockwise or counter-clockwise depending on usage. For example, a
tapered hand reamer with a clockwise spiral will tend to self feedas it is used, possibly
leading to a wedging action and consequent breakage. A counter-clockwise spiral is
therefore preferred even though the reamer is still turned in the clockwise direction.
For production machine tools, the shank type is usually one of the following: a standard
taper (such as Morse or Brown & Sharpe), a straight round shank to be held by a collet, or a
straight round shank with a flat for a set screw, to be held by a solid toolholder. For hand
tools, the shank end is usually a square drive, intended for use with the same type
of wrench used to turn a tap for the cutting of screw threads.

Threading :

both standard and non-standard screw threads can
be turned on a lathe using an appropriate cutting tool. (Usually having a 60, or 55 nose
angle) Either externally, or within a bore.
.
Generally referred to as single-point
threading.
tapping of threaded nuts and holes a) using hand taps and tailstock centre b)using a
tapping device with a slipping clutch to reduce risk of breakage of the tap
threading operations include a)all types of external and internal thread forms using a
single point tool also taper threads, double start threads, multi start threads, worms as
used in worm wheel reduction boxes, leadscrew with single or multistart threads. b) by
the use of threading boxes fitted with 4 form tools, up to 2" diameter threads but it is
possible to find larger boxes than this.






TO,
MR . PRASANNA K N
M E I POLYTECHNIC






BY,
SUPREETH. C. N
M E I POLYTECHNIC
4
th
SEM DME


THANK YOU

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