Applications of CNC Machines. Types of CNC Machining Center.
These days the CNC machines are found in almost all industries, from a small scale industry to big companies. There is hardly any facet of manufacturing that is not touched by the automated CNC machining center. Everyone involved in the manufacturing should know what a CNC machine can do for their company. Due to extensive applications of CNC machines in various industries, there is a great surge in the demand of the CNC programmers. To meet these demands a number of schools have come up that teach the operation and programming of the CNC machines.
CNC Machine Tools
Some Industries where CNC Machining Centers are used
Here are some of the many industries where the CNC machining centers are used.
Industries for removing metal: The metal removing industries remove the metal from the raw material to give it the desired as per the requirements. These can be the automotive industries for making the shafts, gears, and many other parts. It can be manufacturing industries for making the various rounded, square, rectangular, threaded and other jobs. There are many other industries where the metal removal works are performed. All these metal removal works are performed by different machine tools like lathe, milling machine, drilling machine, boring machine, shaping machine, reamer, etc. Traditionally these machines are operated by the operators, but the CNC versions of all these machines are now used extensively. You can carryout almost all machining operations with the CNC machining centers. You can also carry out all the turning operations such as facing, boring, turning, grooving, knurling, and threading on your CNC turning centers. On your CNC grinders you can carry out the grinding of the internal diameter, outer diameter, and also the flat surfaces. The Contour Grinding technology enables you to grind surfaces of all shapes.
Industries for Fabricating Metals: In many industries thin plates like steel plates are required for various purposes, in fabrications industry the machining operations are performed on such plates. In these industries the CNC machines are used for various machining operations like shearing, flame or plasma cutting, punching, laser cutting, forming, and welding and many other applications. To bring the plates to their final shape CNC lasers and CNC plasma cutters are used commonly. To punch the holes in the plates of all sizes CNC turret punch presses are used. And if you want to bend the plate so as to give it a final shape, you can use CNC press brakes. In some cases the CNC back gages are coupled with the shearing machines, this enables controlling the length of the plate to be sheared as for different applications.
Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM) Industry: The EDM machines remove the metal by creating the sparks that burn the metal. There are two types of EDM with the CNC automation – Vertical EDM and Wire EDM. The Vertical EDM needs an electrode of the shape and size of the cavity that is be made in the job. Wire EDM is used to make the punch and die combinations for the dies set that are used in the industries where fabrication is done.
Other Industries where CNC machines are used: CNC machines are also used extensively in the wood working industries to perform various operations like routing (similar to milling) and drilling. CNC technology is also used in number of lettering and engraving systems. There are also CNC machines for the electrical industry such as CNC coil winders, and CNC terminal location and soldering machines.
In whichever the industry you go you are sure to find some or the other type of the CNC machine. The progress made by the manufacturing sector is mainly due to the advancements in the CNC technology.
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This post is part of the series: CNC Machines. NC Machines. NC System
This is the series of articles that describes what is numerical control machine or NC machine, the components or parts of the NC machine, brief history of the NC machine and the advent of the CNC machines.