Machine tools for machining

Abstract

Machining operations are among the most versatile and accurate manufacturing processes in terms of its capability to produce diverse and complex geometric features. This chapter takes its focus on the machining processes utilizing sharp cutting tools to remove materials from the workpiece by shear deformation. The main principle of these processes is providing the relative motions between the cutting tool and the workpiece, which is accomplished through machine tools. The machine tools are discussed and categorized based on the employed cutting tools: single-point cutting tools, multipoint cutting tools, or grinding wheels. Machining centers, which have flexibilities to perform various machining operations with different cutting tools on more than one workpiece, are also discussed. Drives and controls are responsible to respectively provide and regulate the motions of the machine tool components. Thus, industrial designs and technologies of spindle drives and feed drives, as well as numerical controls, are described in this chapter. Finally, different mechanical designs, in terms of the kinematic mechanism to provide the relative motions between the tool and the workpiece, have been introduced to the manufacturing floors. Each of these designs has penetrated today’s manufacturing floor bringing certain superiority as compared to the conventional machine tools. This chapter discusses important characteristics of a few of these emerging machine tool designs, namely, industrial robots, parallel and hybrid kinematic machine tools, and reconfigurable machine tools.