The main types of machine tools in production

Today, no production plant can do without machine tools. Whether it's a small private company or a large factory - in one form or another, processing equipment is used in all industries. Another thing is that there are many classifications of machine assemblies, features of the functional, as well as individual optional filling. These and other factors allow us to determine the different types of machines for specific characteristics and characteristics.

What do they call machine tools?

The main distinguishing feature of this equipment in the general category of industrial units and construction tools is the presence of a bed, on the basis of which a working organ or organ system is arranged. The processing element can be a small abrasive wheel, a drill, and a diamond crown - this depends on the operation being performed. Most often, the general view of the machine appears as a massive construction with a working tool, a feed platform, latches, a motor, etc. But in household and small-scale workshops, applications and installations of modest dimensions are quite suitable. Moreover, if in the past only stationary units were necessarily assigned to the machines, today there are many mobile devices among them. And the line between the hand power tool and the small-sized machine is not always clearly defined even by the manufacturers. And yet, the presence of a bed, power plant and processing organs allows you to refer the equipment to full-fledged machines. Which ones is another matter.

Lathes

One of the most popular categories of production machines, which cover all operations associated with turning parts. The lathe allows you to adjust the shapes of workpieces that initially have rotating bodies, to cut, grooving, and in some cases drilling. It can be said that the target of this equipment is the maintenance of blanks in the form of bodies of revolution, which in the process of turning are conical or cylindrical. There are different types of lathes that are used in different industries. For example, woodworking factories can use large machines to create round lumber. In the furniture industry, lathe units are used for the formation of legs, staircases, handles, etc. Separate such machines and the type of placement - floor or desktop.

Sawing machines

In this category, the units that realize the cutting of blanks into two or several parts are presented. Allocate circular, that is, disk machines, and tape. The first perform cross-cutting of products, usually in a continuous mode. Circular models are widely used in the household, since such operations are quite in demand. Tape types of machines allow for longitudinal cutting. For example, a single-saw unit can divide a long board into two parts, similar in length. The two-sawing, in turn, at a time make a sawing in two levels, allowing three to get from one board. Special modifications make it possible to form a curved cut or even cut at a certain angle. These are units with automatic feed control that perform high-precision machining.

Milling machines

This type of operation is focused on the formation of profiles of a certain type. More often, flat workpieces are processed by milling by removing the edges to a certain height. Machines of this type are used mainly in furniture production, where with their help they receive shaped elements and accessories, which primarily have a decorative function. Produced with the help of a router and high-grade building materials - lining, skirting, thorns, platbands, etc. More modern types of milling machines support the template processing. This is a copy-milling machine, the cutting parameters of which are selected automatically according to the dimensions of the template part.

Machine for holes

Drilling machines are no less in demand both in private workshops and in large industries. They allow you to create blind and through holes, due to which in the future can be assembled. Unlike electric drills, machines with drilling function provide higher accuracy and differ in power. Vertical types of machine tools are the most popular because they assume an upper spindle arrangement and give freedom when handling the working platform-table. Some models are able to perform inclined drilling - it is also realized due to the possibility of changing the position of the table, on which the workpiece is fixed. A separate category is represented by drilling and grooving machines. They are able to produce milling operations in addition to directly drilling. Milling is not traditional, but narrowly focused. Such models usually perform slotted recesses, technological nests and other structural grooves for connection.

Surface treatment machines

A wide range of machine tools is presented in the model segment for surface machining of parts. Such operations are generally positioned as grinding, but this is only the bulk of their functions, and there are also related tasks. Which type of processing the specific machine will perform depends on its design. Thus, the drum machines are oriented to grinding boards, panel and sheet materials over the surface. In fact, a shallow cleaning of material from burrs, exposed irregularities and other defects is realized. Finer processing is performed by edge grinding models. At first glance, the same function is performed by the main types of lathes, which carefully adjust the surface of the blanks to the desired shape. However, in this case, the processing of the edges is emphasized not only on the cylindrical parts. This operation is often used to correct the edge along the length. But there are also machines in this group that are also oriented to cylindrical parts. These are oscillatory models of grinding machines, but they are used not for decorative improvement, for example, balusters, but for the preparation of building materials in the form of logs of a certain size.

Classification by material processing

Production machines often receive a specific purpose in terms of material processing. Wood and metal are the basic materials with which such equipment operates. For wood blanks, the machines are not so high in capacity, but on the other hand, more flexible settings for work operations are provided. Machines for metal parts, obviously, require a higher level of power load, as well as a reliable element base. The most popular types of machine tools for metal are turning, milling, drilling, etc. A special category is formed by screw cutting machines, which have almost no analogues in the group of woodworking machines. These are the units that produce thread cutting. In addition, there are special machines for working with stone, plastic, composite and other less popular building and raw materials.

Classification by type of management

Mechanized machine tools with manual control are gradually disappearing into the past. Such models are found only in small workshops that work with piece stock. Large enterprises are trying to switch to semi- or fully automated installations. In this segment, there are also different kinds of machines, differing in the degree of automation. The most developed machines with numerical control and computer control enable high-precision regulation of processing settings without constant monitoring by the user. The operator is given only the function of the source data loader in the electronic control panel.

Conclusion

Most of the machines that are used today in different industries are machines for machining. Cutting, drilling, trimming, grinding - all these operations are realized by exposure to metal nozzles. But they are gradually replaced by high-tech alternative machines. In production, the types of traditional mechanical aggregates as such have no special significance. The main thing that is taken into account is the ability to maintain the pace of processing with proper quality assurance. Essentially new opportunities in this context were opened by hydroabrasive, laser and thermal machines with higher operational properties. Their impact from different points of view is more than justified, but so far the massive transition to such machines is hampered by the complex organization of their use and high price.