Development of an adjustable gang drilling attachment for radial drilling machine

Abstract

The objective was to develop an adjustable gang drilling attachment for radial drilling machine using retrofit approach. General purpose machines are not designed for mass production and to increase productivity is by the use of Special Purpose Machines (SPM’s). SPMs such as ‘Gang Drilling Machines’ are generally which are usually employed in order to drill multiple holes simultaneously are too expensive for small scale industries. Hence there was a need to develop an attachment that provides multiple drilling capabilities at variable diameter and low cost. This attachment can increase the productivity and performance of existing radial drilling machine. The first step was a detailed kinematic study of radial drilling machine. Several designs of drilling attachments were developed and analyzed for kinematic properties, manufacturing viability and cost. The ‘Telescopic link type’ attachment was selected. This was followed by a detailed design of each component of the attachment and its manufacturing.