Lathe machines are almost everywhere. You might have seen one at a local Machine shop but never knew how it works. Or you’ve seen those wood craft videos with a high-speed rotating arm cutting out intricate shapes.
The machine you saw holding metals or wood while rotating at high speed and helping the user cut and shape lovely pieces is called a lathe. Lathes are essential tools in any workshop, factory, or engineering setting and have existed for centuries. They work in various ways to produce those high-precision parts with intricate shapes.
Here are a few ways lathe machines get used in the industrial setting.
Forming
Forming using a lathe produces profiles with a special form tool that bears the reverse of the required component upon its cutting edge. The machine turns intricate profiles by plunge feeding. Such machining could be disc-shaped or radial, or tangential type.
Forming tools used in lathe machines can be either circular form type or flat type depending on their shape. Keep in mind since the profile produced on the workpiece is a replica, its accuracy is entirely dependent on the accuracy of the form tool.
Contour Turning
Lathe machines can also produce complicated shapes like turbine blades used in jet engines. In this case, you first make a template of the desired shape on a plastic, plaster, or any other soft material. From there, the machine produces a similar component by controlling the cutting tool.
The cutting tool acts through the action of a follower that axially moves over the surface of the template. The cutting action is similar to a curve-drawing instrument. But instead of a pencil, the tool cuts material from the workpiece. We refer to it as contour turning because it involves the generation of curved surfaces.
Machining of Cams
Cams are round-shaped components with curved or sloped surfaces that enable motion transfer from one part to another. Cams are in almost all machines, be it injection moulding, gearbox components, camshafts, or automatic doors.
Lathe machines produce cams with high precision and accuracy. They get usually manufactured on a 2 1⁄2 axis NC machining centre. The machine’s rotary table moves the workpiece in the required direction, and the cutting tool follows a pre-programmed path.
Usually, the motion of the cutting tool comes from either follower or the mathematical curves of the cam profile. Both these methods require precise control and optimum speed.
Ultra Precision Machining
Lathe machines can produce ultra-precision pieces with high accuracy. Such parts are most useful in computers, nuclear, defence, and electronic applications. For example, components like optical mirrors may require a surface finish of 10-9 m or 0.001 µm.
Ultra-precision lathe machines come with a single-crystal diamond as the cutting tool to help achieve this kind of precision. They have reduced backlash and high-speed spindles. (1)
At Cheetah Precision, we have a variety of lathe machines and a tight-knit team of experts to help you with any machining needs. We can help you produce high-precision and complicated shapes with our various machines, tools, and techniques. We are proud to serve the US with our industry-leading service. Call us today via (651) 633-4566 and request a free quote.
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