subject: Cnc Turning Made Simple. [print this page] In its most basic form, CNC Turning consists of a single instance cutting tool which is positioned parallel to the surface of a turning object that is being manufactured. In the first examples of this type of device, the rotation of the object was performed by hand resulting in the obvious complications of achieving consistency and accuracy.
These manually operated lathes (as these rotation tools are often known as), required continuous operational observation and tracking and ended up being time consuming and manpower intensive needing trained precision engineers to operate them.
With the introduction of CNC Turning, where a pc controls the operation of the cutting instrument and the lathe activity, after set up, it is the pc that monitors and checks the operation. This greatly improves the efficiency, accuracy, speed and cost efficiency producing quality turned items. A wide selection of material could also now be utilized.
The design of these lathes can alter considerably based on the end application, but there are several features that are common to most models. The regular qualities include a headstock, bed, carriage, and tailstock. More sophisticated machines are designed using a heavy duty, thick broad bearing surfaces to give stability and make it possible for engineering with high precision. This helps make sure the finished components that are built on these devices meet the necessary stress and temperature tolerances and can be fabricated repeatedly.
In modern CNC Turning systems, the entire end to end manufacturing activity is enhanced by utilizing Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) applications. These software programs generate a standardized computer readable file that can then be processed to retrieve the pertinent instructions essential to instruct the use of a CNC Turning machine. The end product is a precision engineered object that manufactures a precise replica of the CAD layout.
In both CAD or CAM led processes, the complex series of processes needed to manufacture any part is highly automated and creates a component that closely fits the original CAD design.
The cutting device in a Rotating lathe can work inside (as in a cylinder or tube) or on the outside of the object. This cutting instrument typically works along two axis of motion which enables it to work to precise measures of depth and diameters.
This blend of exactness; reduced numbers of professional operators; and repeatability mean that CNC Turning altered the world of Engineering. 24 hour operations are now achievable with comparatively minimal levels of supervision, large volumes of parts are able to be built accurately and most importantly cost effectively. This has allowed many industrial sectors to boom and expand very quickly, particularly the automotive, aeronautical and oil engineering industries.
The advent of relatively cheap precision engineering services also meant that the cost of delivering new devices and innovations grew at a phenomenal pace, allowing for substantial developments in the mass production of quality engineering components.
Alongside this precision engineering improvement, was the progress of the resources, specifically metals, alloys and thermal plastics. These new composite materials took advantage of the improvements in precision CNC Turning and were in a position to not just grow quickly but to substantially improve the quality of their components.
