Know more about Токарная обработка с ЧПУ in this blog post. This computer-controlled process ensures efficiency and accuracy in shaping materials for various industries.
Explore key operations and industries served, from automotive to consumer goods. Learn about its versatility across materials and get quick answers to common questions.
In essence, grasp how CNC turning transforms manufacturing with speed, precision, and innovation.
A Brief History of CNC Turning
CNC turning began with Parsons' development of numerical control, leading to MIT's creation of the first CNC milling machine in the 1950s.
By the 1970s, CNC turning machines emerged, using computer programs to shape materials precisely.
Continuous advancements have made CNC turning vital in many industries, enhancing precision and efficiency in manufacturing.
How does CNC Turning work?
CNC Turning is a machining process that removes material from a stock piece of material using precision cutting tools.
The workpiece is mounted on the CNC lathe’s spindle, which rotates at high speeds while an array of stationary and moving cutting tools make contact with the rotating material, removing materials in accordance with programming instructions.
The key components comprising the CNC turning system include a non-rotating tool holder that houses the cutting tool, known as turret tooling, followed by feed axles and rail systems that guide the movement of the turret and its associated tools as they come into contact with part materials.
Combined together, these can produce accurate cylindrical components cattle such as shafts, bolts & other metal parts in repeated quantities cost-effectively when compared to traditional hand turning methods.
Advantages of CNC Turning
CNC Turning has many advantages that you might want to make use of. Here are some of them:
Точность
CNC Turning, due to its automated nature, achieves superior precision compared to traditional machining.
Its highly precise process is enabled by optimized software that iteratively refines production methods, minimizing waste and labor costs while ensuring dimensional accuracy within tolerance levels.
By removing material from a rotating workpiece using non-rotating tools, CNC turning ensures uniform dimensions, resulting in consistent, identical products ideal for seamless integration across various industries.
Гибкость
CNC Turning is super adaptable tech that crafts complex parts easily. It uses many angles and tough materials, which can take a while compared to regular methods.
But CNC turning centers can make lots of identical parts fast, boosting flexibility and productivity with automation.
Think of mill-turning systems as a super tool—they combine CNC turning's speed with geometric flexibility to make intricate parts swiftly.
Безопасность
In CNC Turning, safety is key for both employers and workers. Precision matters, so following safety rules is crucial.
This involves having enclosed machines with guards and wearing safety gear like glasses, shields, ear protection, and gloves when needed.
Manufacturers also follow rules for handling materials safely during the turning process.
Эффективность
CNC turning increases efficiency in the manufacturing process since it eliminates the need for manual measurement, adjustment, and operation.
Through an iterative optimization process during production that considers resources used in proportion to quality outputs, CNC machining ensures that parts can be created quickly while waste is reduced.
This contributes to overall improved efficiency while still maintaining accuracy when creating components.
Автоматизация
CNC turning is a type of automated manufacturing using computer-controlled tools that lessen manual work.
Automating CNC operations offers benefits like efficiency, cost reduction, and better shop floor organization.
These machines and robots work precisely and consistently, creating accurate parts without human involvement. They run continuously with minimal maintenance, ensuring round-the-clock operation.
Main Types of CNC Turning Operations
From cut-off operations to precise threading, CNC turning offers a wide variety of machining functions.
These include turning or hard turning, facing, drilling, grooving, parting, boring, knurling, and threading operations that can be used for various materials according to the application.
Let’s discuss them further!
Turning or Hard Turing
CNC turning, also known as hard turning or lathe machining, involves rotating parts against a cutting tool to create different-shaped components.
This method, directed by a computer, allows for precise cuts, replacing grinding operations and enabling the production of complex shapes with more tolerance.
The process includes three primary cutting tool movements: linear movement across the workpiece surface (X & Z axis), circular movement around the spindle axis (vertical), and infeeding motion to remove material from specific depths while cutting into the part's outer diameter.
Facing
Facing is used to create smooth, flat surfaces on workpieces.
The tool turret brings the cutting tool to the rotating workpiece for machining, while a set of parameters helps control its precision and accuracy.
These include spindle speed, tool size, and finishing requirements such as surface finish.
Facing operations are essential for increasing dimensional stability to ensure that the end product meets any required specifications.
Бурение
Drilling is crucial for precisely cutting materials like metal, plastic, wood, glass, and wax by inserting a cutting tool into a spinning workpiece. This creates holes or cavities.
It needs precise programming to align the tool accurately for the desired shape and size. Combining drilling with other techniques like facing or boring enables achieving complex shapes while maintaining high accuracy.
CNC drilling not only shapes raw material blocks into 3D surfaces but also handles horn depth adjustments and hole placements precisely.
Grooving
Grooving is an essential part of the CNC Turning operations, allowing for precision-machined parts with narrow cuts or grooves of specified depth on workpieces.
It is a multi-step process involving different types of tools, such as formed and shell end mills, adjustable angle cutters, and knife blades, which are fed through rotation along the material surface to create holes with tight boundaries.
Different materials like metals, plastics, wood, glass, and wax can also adopt this operation depending upon their properties regarding ductility that allows them to be shaped or moved without any damage.
Parting
Parting creates a deep gouge in a material for various machining activities.
Parting depends on specialized techniques ranging from cutting tools, drill bits, saw blades, alloys, and other resources designed strategically to cut into materials like metals for parting.
The process will depend on size restrictions or designs that need deeper cuts than can be achieved with traditional machining methods.
Скука
Boring is a finishing process in CNC turning that uses a single-point tool to feed linearly into the inside diameter of an existing hole.
This precision machining technique ensures the required size and finish are achieved on CNC turned parts, as it enables fine control over internal dimension tolerances within restricted confines.
As the cutting force increases when boring, step changes in depth and width may be needed to ensure tools remain intact while providing uniform accuracy across each workpiece.
Knurling
Knurling is a machining process that uses tooling techniques to form regular patterns of serrated or diamond-shaped lines on the surface of cylindrical workpieces.
The knurling tool presses a wheel or roller against the material at predetermined angles, rolling indentations along its entire length and creating distinct ridges called beads that cross each other in an overlapping pattern.
This produces a texture similar to corrugated metal on the workpiece surface, providing additional grip for surfaces that require secure contact, such as with hand tools and safety equipment parts.
It can also be used to add decorative detail for aesthetic purposes.
Threading
Threading involves creating helical grooves in the material to form a cylindrical shape. This process effectively enables external threads to be formed on components or parts, allowing them to hold together tighter and more accurately than traditional methods.
Perpendicular threading for turned parts requires knowledge of various machining thread types, such as buttress, parallel, trapezoidal, modified square root, and more.
Развертка
Reaming is used to enlarge an existing hole to achieve a precise diameter and smooth surface finish.
It involves using a multi-toothed fluted tool that has been engineered for accuracy and precision cutting of metal.
Reaming is often far more accurate than drilling due to its much finer cuts. In addition, reaming ensures that diameters remain consistent with the tolerance specified by the engineer or manufacturer.
What Industries Will Need CNC Turning?
From automotive and aeronautical engineering to consumer goods, many industries rely on CNC turning for precision components.
Learn more about the uses of CNC turning for different sectors in this guide.
Автомобильная промышленность
Using automated machines, complex parts such as combustion engine components, suspension pieces, lights, and exhaust systems are created to a very exacting standard.
Electrical Industry
It's used to manufacture power supplies, connectors, ports, switches, and other components needed in electronic equipment, as well as small circuit boards and intricate transformer parts.
Аэрокосмическая промышленность
CNC Turning enables efficient and precise production of components for aircraft, missiles, helicopters, and spacecraft.
The precision machining process creates intricate parts such as screws, nuts, threads, connector pins, and fasteners with consistently high accuracy on every part manufactured.
Медицинская промышленность
CNC turning centers are used extensively to produce custom machined parts essential for medical devices and equipment.
Transportation Industry
It is used for creating specialized or custom components that are required to satisfy various standards of quality, performance, safety, and reliability.
This is especially important for vehicle or aircraft parts that must be manufactured with utmost care and maintenance.
CNC turning also benefits the transportation industry's supply chain, ensuring efficient production of components needed for various types of transportation equipment.
Нефтегазовая промышленность
CNC turning produces components and equipment necessary for drilling, exploration, extraction, and refining processes.
CNC turning offers a wide variety of opportunities within the oil and gas industry, which involve creating custom parts such as valves, pumps, and pipes, among other items used in this sector.
Consumer Goods Industry
CNC turning is an essential process for the consumer goods industry, offering high precision and accuracy in producing custom parts and components.
In this manner, CNC technology allows manufacturers to produce exactly what their customers want with relatively little effort.
Main Materials That Can Be Used in CNC Turning?
CNC turning is highly versatile and can work with various materials, from metals to plastics, wood, glass, and even wax.
The most commonly used materials include aluminum, stainless steel, brass, and other copper alloys.
Metals--Aluminum, Stainless Steel, Brass, Copper and more
CNC Turning uses various metals for precise component machining. Aluminum, stainless steel, brass, and copper are common choices.
Aluminum's lightness and customizable finishes make it popular, but it's less strong, making it unsuitable for high-tolerance applications like aerospace.
Stainless steel offers malleability, durability, and corrosion resistance, ideal for drilling and reaming in consumer goods.
Brass, though not very strong, provides good wear resistance and intricate design capabilities, making it popular in electrical engineering and medical equipment crafting, like pediatric wheelchair fixtures.
Copper, like other metals in CNC turning, has its merits. It's valued for its excellent electrical conductivity and thermal properties. It’s useful in electrical components and other specialized machining.
Пластик
Plastics like Nylon/PA, Polyamides, PVCs, PETs, and HDPEs are favored in CNC turning for their moldability, eliminating extra processes.
CNC machines not only craft packaging but also carve foam for diverse components.
Engraving allows customized surface detailing. These plastics provide flexibility, cost-effectiveness, and swift production.
Дерево
Hardwoods like oak, maple, ebony, and walnut are the top choices for CNC turning because they're tough, strong and handle pressure well.
Compared to softer woods or synthetic materials, hardwoods keep their shape better during cutting because they don't warp as much from the heat generated by the lathe's rotation speed.
Стекло
Glass, especially tempered glass with wire mesh commonly found in school and facility doors, is highly versatile for CNC turning.
It requires specialized tools and careful handling due to its delicate nature. CNC turning with glass is advantageous for making precise patterns or molds needed in medical device and consumer goods manufacturing.
Wax
Machining wax, also known as hard wax, is a durable synthetic wax blended with plastic.
Its exceptional hardness allows for precise shaping, intricate designs, and smooth finishes, making it superior to plastics, glass, wood, and metals in accuracy and uniformity.
With advanced programming, it enables faster production of professional-grade items with detailed components, eliminating the need for post-machining finishing by optimizing parameters like cutting direction and tolerances to achieve perfect shapes efficiently.
Заключение
CNC turning is a highly precise, subtractive manufacturing process, most commonly used to produce parts such as shafts, bolts, and fasteners.
It has numerous advantages due to its ability to create high-precision components very efficiently through computer-controlled cutting tools.
CNC turning differs from milling operations because the cutting tool remains stationary while it feeds into the rotating workpiece instead of passing over it like traditional milling processes.
As such, CNC turning is an effective solution for many industries that require high accuracy components with tight dimensional tolerances.
Часто задаваемые вопросы
Difference Between CNC Turning and CNC Lathes
CNC turning and CNC lathes are ways to cut material using computer-controlled machines.
CNC turning uses rotating tools to shape materials, while CNC lathes are more advanced, using automatic tool changers for various machining tasks with higher precision.
CNC lathes reduce setup time and handle complex shapes better than traditional lathes. In manufacturing, CNC options are preferred for complex tasks like threading due to their precision and cost-effectiveness compared to manual methods.
What parts are a good fit for CNC Turning?
CNC Turning is a precise machining method used for cylindrical part production.
This process is versatile, creating components like rods, shafts, holes, grooves, threads, and intricate details in automotive, medical, and oil & gas industry products due to its high accuracy.
CNC Turning vs CNC Milling, which is better for you?
The choice between CNC turning and CNC milling hinges on the workpiece's shape, size, and complexity.
CNC milling is adept at swiftly crafting intricate shapes from various materials, while CNC turning excels in producing cylindrical objects with precise tools like reamers and drills.
Mills are preferable for complex designs with multiple operations, whereas turning offers superior accuracy and cost efficiency for mass-producing nearly identical parts like screws or bolts due to the minimal setup required before automated production runs.
Ultimately, the selection depends on the specific requirements of the project.
Is CNC Turning expensive?
CNC turning costs vary based on machine size, complexity, and purpose.
Industrial-grade machines range from 10,000 euros to hundreds of thousands, while hobbyist models are cheaper, typically from a few thousand dollars to $20,000.
Operational costs per hour generally run around 15 euros, but higher-end automated machines can lower expenses by reducing setup times and part cycle times.
What are the three main movements in turning operations?
In CNC turning, three primary movements drive precision: workpiece rotation via the chuck and spindle, cutting tool motion for operations like facing or threading and feeding where powered pressure is applied to the workpiece surfaces for precise cutting.
Differences Between CNC Milling and CNC Turning
CNC turning involves a stationary tool and a rotating part, creating cylindrical shapes like shafts or pins, while CNC milling uses a rotating tool on a static piece, allowing for more diverse shapes, including complex 3D structures and flat faces.
Turning tends to be more precise due to consistent rotation, making it faster and cost-efficient compared to traditional machine centers with additional setup times.
