What do you mean machining?

What do you mean machining?
What do you mean machining?

What do you mean machining? In this article, I will explain what machining is, the advantages and disadvantages of machining, and a few processes such as turning and milling, which are the production methods of machining.

What is machining? First, let’s look for an answer to this question. Machining is the process of removing material from the workpiece in the form of a layer, using a tool and power, in order to give a material the desired properties (surface, shape and size). The separated material layer is also called sawdust. In short, machining is the process of transporting the mold material in hand to the targeted shape with the help of cutting tools. After learning what machining is, let’s examine the advantages and disadvantages in detail.

Advantages of Machining

  • In machining processes, the material scale that can be processed is quite wide.
  • Thanks to the machining process, it is possible to obtain any pre-designed part of any shape and size.
  • Shapes designed in digital environments such as computer programs with millimetric calculations, ready-to-use solid objects with the desired correct dimensions and clean surfaces can be obtained by machining.

Disadvantages of Machining

  • With the changing conditions, material wastage is experienced.
  • Processing time takes more time than other manufacturing/production methods.

We made two different definitions of machining. We need to make one more definition to explain material waste. Machining; It is the process of shaping materials such as metal, plastic, wood by removing the material from the top or from the inside. As we can understand from this definition, material is lost/wasted in varying amounts by removing material from the material. As with everything in life, it is important to remember that there are pros and cons in machining. Let’s get to know more about machine tools, which are the most important parts of machining.

Machine tools

All of the production tools that process and give a certain shape to materials such as metal, plastic, wood and stone are called machine tools. The primary goal of machine tools, as we have just mentioned, is to shape the material, and this shape is given with the help of single cutters or complicated machines consisting of many cutting tools. After learning what machine tools do in general, it’s time to explain the details of the forming processes.

Turning

Circular shapes/parts are produced on lathes. On lathes:

  • springs
  • screws
  • bolts

Such parts are produced. Apart from these, operations such as drilling holes can also be performed. Lathes have been used since ancient times. While the turning process required great labor and mastery in the times when technology was not that advanced, it became much easier to produce on CNC lathes in the period when technology reached today’s level. While there are three axes in universal lathes, we have reached a high number of seven axes with CNC lathes that have entered our lives with technology.

What advantages does the seven axes have? To answer a possible question:

  • The ease of operations to achieve the desired shape increases.
  • It provides a more precise manufacturing process.
  • A significant reduction in production time occurs.
  • All these advantages lead to a serious reduction in the cost of the process.

Milling

The milling cutter was invented towards the end of the 19th century. Mills are machines that shape by removing chips from the material to be processed with the help of cutting tools. Milling has a significant difference from turning. So what is this difference? Milling is a type of operation in which the part to be processed is stationary and the cutting tools rotate in comparison to the turning operation. This difference allows us to obtain shapes that were previously designed in the computer environment, but that we could not obtain with the turning process, with the milling process. With the integration of the milling process into our lives, we have gained the ability to easily perform operations such as grooving. While we need people with different characteristics to form a good team in business life, it would be wrong to think differently in machine tools.

Drilling Process

Drilling is an important step in machining techniques. Drilling is the process of drilling cylindrical holes on the designed material with the help of cutting tools, which we call drills and which are specially manufactured for these works. We can face a few problems in the hole drilling process. These problems may be caused by us, not by the process. Sometimes we confuse drilling with turning and milling operations. The reason for this is that holes can be created in the material in turning and milling operations, as well as in drilling operations.

The most important differences between hole drilling and other operations are: chip breaking and chip evacuation are critical, while drilling is limited to creating holes in the material, which is an important aspect that distinguishes drilling from other operations. Drilling is one of the most common basic manufacturing operations. In these processes, while high speed steel (HSS) drills were used in the past, with the further development of the manufacturing industry recently, coated and insert drills have also entered our lives. Due to the very high metal removal potential, which is the most important feature of these cutters, they are also widely used in CNC lathes, CNC milling and CNC drilling benches.

Reaming Process

The part that performs the reaming process is called a reamer. Reamer is a cutting tool used in parts where precise surface quality is required. In the reaming process, since the target principle is to obtain a piece with a precise surface and correct dimensions, holes with a small depth are drilled in the designated parts of the target piece, and then cutting tools called reamer and clockwise rotating cutting tools are inserted into the work, and the desired piece is produced with a precise surface and accurately. obtained by measurements. Meanwhile, the reaming process starts with drilling by placing the reamer perpendicular to the workpiece and turning it clockwise, turning it clockwise and ending with pulling it upwards.

Grinding Process

Before we talk about what grinding is, we would like to drag the discussion between manufacturers here as well. While some manufacturers argue that grinding is one of the machining methods, some have the opposite opinion. The basis of their thinking is that the grinding process removes much less material than other machining methods. So what are your views? If we go back to our main subject, the cutting tools, which are obtained by baking the hard and abrasive parts together with organic or inorganic binders, are rotated at high speed on the grinding machine, and the existing material is shaped depending on what properties are desired. As I mentioned earlier, this process is also known for low stock removal.

Conclusion

Machining entered our lives with the wood industry at the beginning of the 18th century. Machining started to show itself slowly in the 19th century, which was the period when iron shaping was done with the manual power of blacksmiths. In the middle of the 19th century, it began to be used in the processing of iron, albeit a little. The machining industry, which showed a great development in the 20th century, developed over time and took its current form. As we have just mentioned, after the great leap of the machining industry in the 20th century, it has accompanied us in almost every stage of our lives, and it seems that this association will continue for many years to come.

What do you mean machining?