The turret lathe is a form of metalworking lathe A metal lathe or metalworking lathe is a large class of lathes designed for precisely machining relatively hard materials. They were originally designed to machine metals; however, with the advent of plastics and other materials, and with their inherent versatility, they are used in a wide range of applications, and a broad range of materials. In that is used for repetitive production of duplicate parts, which by the nature of their cutting process are usually interchangeable Interchangeable parts are parts that are for practical purposes identical. They are made to specifications that ensure that they are so nearly identical that they will fit into any device of the same type. One such part can freely replace another, without any custom fitting . This interchangeability allows easy assembly of new devices, and easier. It evolved from earlier lathes with the addition of the turret, which is an indexable Indexing in reference to motion is moving into a new position or location quickly and easily but also precisely. After a machine part has been indexed, its location is known to within a few hundredths of a millimeter (thousandths of an inch), or often even to within a few thousandths of a millimeter (ten-thousandths of an inch), despite the fact toolholder that allows multiple cutting operations to be performed, each with a different cutting tool, in easy, rapid succession, with no need for the operator to perform setup tasks in between, such as installing or uninstalling tools, nor to control the toolpath. The latter is due to the toolpath's being controlled by the machine, either in jig A jig is any of a large class of tools in woodworking, metalworking, and some other crafts that help to control the location or motion of a tool. Some types of jigs are also called or guides. The primary purpose for a jig is for repeatability and exact duplication of a part for reproduction. An example of a jig is when a key is duplicated, the-like fashion, via the mechanical limits placed on it by the turret's slide and stops, or via electronically-directed servomechanisms for computer numerical control (CNC) lathes.
Types of turret lathes, and their nomenclature
Overview
There are many variants of the turret lathe. They can be most generally classified by size (small, medium, or large); method of control (manual, automated mechanically, or automated via computer (numerical control (NC) or computer numerical control (CNC)); and bed orientation (horizontal or vertical).
The archetypical turret lathe: horizontal, manual
The archetypical turret lathe, and the first in order of historical appearance, is the horizontal-bed, manual turret lathe. In machine shop jargon Jargon is terminology which is especially defined in relationship to a specific activity, profession, or group. The philosophe Condillac observed in 1782 that "Every science requires a special language because every science has its own ideas." As a rationalist member of the Enlightenment he continued, "It seems that one ought to, the term "turret lathe", without further qualification, is still usually understood in context to refer to this type. The formative decades for this class of machine were the 1840s through 1860s, when the basic idea of mounting an indexable turret on a bench lathe or engine lathe was elaborated upon, developed, and disseminated into factories A factory or manufacturing plant is an industrial building where laborers manufacture goods or supervise machines processing one product into another. Most modern factories have large warehouses or warehouse-like facilities that contain heavy equipment used for assembly line production. Typically, factories gather and concentrate resources:. Some important tool-builders in this development were Stephen Fitch; Gay, Silver & Co.; Elisha K. Root of Colt; J.D. Alvord of the Sharps Armory; Frederick W. Howe, Richard S. Lawrence, and Henry D. Stone of Robbins & Lawrence; J.R. Brown of Brown & Sharpe; Pratt & Whitney Pratt & Whitney is an American aircraft engine manufacturer of products widely used in both civil and military aircraft. As one of the "big three" aero-engine manufacturers, it competes with General Electric and Rolls-Royce, although it has also formed joint ventures with both of these companies. In addition to aircraft engines,; and later various designers at these and other firms.[2]
Semi-automatic turret lathes
Sometimes machines similar to those above, but with power feeds and automatic turret-indexing at the end of the return stroke, are called "semi-automatic turret lathes". This nomenclature distinction is blurry and not consistently observed. The term "turret lathe" encompasses them all. During the 1860s, when semi-automatic turret lathes were developed, they were sometimes called "automatic". What we today would call "automatics", that is, fully automatic machines, had not been developed yet. During that era both manual and semi-automatic turret lathes were sometimes called "screw machines", although we today reserve that term for fully automatic machines.
Automatic turret lathes
During the 1870s through 1890s, the mechanically automated "automatic" turret lathe was developed and disseminated. These machines can execute many part-cutting cycles without human intervention. Thus the duties of the operator, which were already greatly reduced by the manual turret lathe, were even further reduced, and productivity increased. These machines use cams to automate the sliding and indexing of the turret and the opening and closing of the chuck. Thus, they execute the part-cutting cycle somewhat analogously to the way in which an elaborate cuckoo clock performs an automated theater show. Christopher Miner Spencer built the first one, which he patented in 1873. Unfortunately, his patent attorney failed to protect the most significant part, the cam drum, which Spencer called the "brain wheel".[3] Therefore many other people quickly took up the idea. Later important developers of fully automatic machines were S. L. Worsley, who developed a single-spindle machine for Brown & Sharpe, Reinhold Hakewessel, who eventually joined National-Acme, and George O. Gridley, of Acme-Gridley and New Britain-Gridley, who developed multiple-spindle variants.[4] Small- to medium-sized automatic turret lathes are usually called "screw machines" or "automatic screw machines", while larger ones are usually called "automatic chucking lathes", "automatic chuckers", or "chuckers".
At the same time that fully automatic screw machines were being developed in New England In one of the earliest European settlements in North America, Pilgrims from England first settled in New England in 1620, to form Plymouth Colony. Ten years later, the Puritans settled north of Plymouth Colony in Boston, thus forming Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630. In the late 18th century, the New England colonies would be among the first North, growing out of the manual turret lathe, they were also being independently developed in Switzerland Switzerland , officially the Swiss Confederation (Confœderatio Helvetica in Latin, hence its ISO country codes CH and CHE), is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe[note 4] where it is bordered by Germany to the north, France to the west, Italy to, with some differing influences. The differences and similarities between the American and Swiss machines are interesting to compare.
Machine tools of the "automatic" variety, which in the pre-computer era meant mechanically automated, had already reached a highly advanced state by World War I World War I was a military conflict that lasted from 1914 to 1918 and involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Allies and the Central Powers. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilized in one of the largest wars in history. More than 15 million people were.
Computer numerical control and second-operation lathes
When World War II Albania · Australia · Austria · Azerbaijan · Belarus · Belgium · Brazil · Bulgaria · Burma · Cambodia · Canada · Ceylon (Sri Lanka) · Channel Islands · China · Czechoslovakia · Denmark · Dutch East Indies · Egypt · Estonia · Finland · France · Germany · Gibraltar · Greece · Greenland · Hong Kong · Hungary · Iceland · ended, the digital computer A computer is a programmable machine that receives input, stores and manipulates data//information, and provides output in a useful format was poised to develop from a colossal laboratory curiosity into a practical technology that could begin to disseminate into business and industry. The advent of electronics-based automation in machine tools A machine tool is a powered mechanical device, typically used to fabricate metal components of machines by machining, which is the selective removal of metal. The term machine tool is usually reserved for tools that used a power source other than human movement, but they can be powered by people if appropriately set up. Many historians of via numerical control Numerical control refers to the automation of machine tools that are operated by abstractly programmed commands encoded on a storage medium, as opposed to manually controlled via handwheels or levers, or mechanically automated via cams alone. The first NC machines were built in the 1940s and '50s, based on existing tools that were modified with (NC) and then computer numerical control (CNC) displaced to a large extent, but not at all completely, the previously existing manual and mechanically automated machines. Today, most CNC lathes A metal lathe or metalworking lathe is a large class of lathes designed for precisely machining relatively hard materials. They were originally designed to machine metals; however, with the advent of plastics and other materials, and with their inherent versatility, they are used in a wide range of applications, and a broad range of materials. In have turrets, and so could logically be called "turret lathes", but the terminology is usually not used that way. Horizontal CNC lathes, with or without turrets, are generally called "CNC lathes" or "CNC turning centers" or "turning centers", and the term "turret lathe" by itself is still usually understood in context to refer to horizontal, manual turret lathes. The changed role in the production process that such machines now play is reflected in another name for them, second-operation lathe, as explained later.
Vertical turret lathes
The term "vertical turret lathe" (VTL) is applied to machines wherein the same essential design of the horizontal version is upended, which allows the headstock to sit on the floor and the faceplate to become a horizontal rotating table, analogous to a huge potter's wheel In pottery, a potter's wheel is a machine used in the shaping of round ceramic wares. The wheel may also be used during the process of trimming excess body from dried wares and for applying incised decoration or rings of color. Use of the potter's wheel became widespread throughout the Old World but was unknown in the Pre-Columbian New World,. This is useful for the handling of very large, heavy, short workpieces. Vertical lathes in general are also called "vertical boring mills" or often simply "boring mills"; therefore a vertical turret lathe is a vertical boring mill equipped with a turret. A CNC version is called a "CNC VTL".
| CNC VTL, 46” Bullard High Column Dynatrol, built mid-1960s. | CNC VTL, 88” Niles Vertical Turret Lathe, built mid-1950s. |
| CNC VTL, King Vertical Turret Lathe Model 100, built 1955. | CNC VTL, 16' Rockford Open Side, built 1980. |
Other variations of design and nomenclature
Capstan versus turret
The term "capstan lathe" overlaps in sense with the term "turret lathe" to a large extent. In many times and places, it has been understood to be synonymous Synonyms are different words with identical or very similar meanings. Words that are synonyms are said to be synonymous, and the state of being a synonym is called synonymy. The word comes from Ancient Greek syn ("with") and onoma (ὄνομα) ("name"). The words car and automobile are synonyms. Similarly, if we talk about a with "turret lathe". In other times and places it has been held in technical contradistinction to "turret lathe", with the difference being in whether the turret's slide is fixed to the bed (ram-type turret) or slides on the bed's ways (saddle-type turret).[5][6] The difference in terminology is mostly a matter of United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland[note 7] is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of the island of Ireland, and many small islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK with a land and Commonwealth The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and previously as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states. All but two of these countries were formerly part of the British Empire usage versus United States ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language usage.[2] American usage tends to call them all "turret lathes".
The word "capstan" could logically seem to refer to the turret itself, and to have been inspired by the nautical capstan The word, connected with the Old French capestan or cabestan, from Old Provençal cabestan, from capestre "pulley cord,", from Latin capistrum, -a halter, from capere, to take hold of, seems to have come into English (14th century) from Portuguese or Spanish shipmen at the time of the Crusades. Both device and word are considered Spanish. A lathe turret with tools mounted in it can very much resemble a nautical capstan full of handspikes. This interpretation would lead Americans to treat "capstan" as a synonym of "turret" and "capstan lathe" as a synonym of "turret lathe". However, the multi-spoked handles that the operator uses to advance the slide are also called capstans, and they themselves also resemble the nautical capstan.
No distinction between "turret lathe" and "capstan lathe" persists upon translation from English into other languages. Most translations involve the term "revolver", and serve to translate either of the English terms.
The words "turret" and "tower", the former being a diminutive In language structure, a diminutive, or diminutive form , is a formation of a word used to convey a slight degree of the root meaning, smallness of the object or quality named, encapsulation, intimacy, or endearment. It is the opposite of an augmentative of the latter, come ultimately from the Latin "turris", which means "tower", and the use of "turret" both to refer to lathe turrets and to refer to gun turrets A turret is a rotating weapon platform. This can be mounted on a fortified building or structure such as an anti-naval land battery, or on an armoured fighting vehicle, a naval ship, or a military aircraft seems certainly to have been inspired by its earlier connection to the turrets In architecture, a turret is a small tower that projects vertically from the wall of a building such as a medieval castle. Turrets were used to provide a projecting defensive position allowing covering fire to the adjacent wall in the days of military fortification. As their military use faded, turrets were adopted for decorative purposes, as in of fortified Fortifications are military constructions and buildings designed for defence in warfare and military bases. Humans have constructed defensive works for many thousands of years, in a variety of increasingly complex designs. The term is derived from the Latin fortis and facere ("to make") buildings and to siege towers A siege tower is a specialized siege engine, constructed to protect assailants and ladders while approaching the defensive walls of a fortification. The tower was often rectangular with four wheels and a height roughly equal to that of the wall or sometimes higher to allow archers to stand on top of the tower and fire into the fortification. The history of the rook in chess A rook is a piece in the strategy board game of chess. In the past the piece was called the castle, tower, marquess, rector, and comes (Sunnucks 1970), and non-players still often call it a "castle". Each player starts with two rooks, one in each of the corners nearest their own side is connected to the same history, with the French word for rook, tour, meaning "tower".
It is an interesting coincidence that the word "tour" in French can mean both "lathe" and "tower", with the first sense coming ultimately from Latin "tornus", "lathe", and the second sense coming ultimately from Latin "turris", "tower". "Tour revolver", "tour tourelle", and "tour tourelle revolver" are various ways to say "turret lathe" in French.
Flat-turret lathe
A subtype of horizontal turret lathe is the flat-turret lathe. Its turret is flat (and analogous to a rotary table A rotary table is a precision work positioning device used in metalworking. It enables the operator to drill or cut work at exact intervals around a fixed axis. Some rotary tables allow the use of index plates for indexing operations, and some can also be fitted with dividing plates that enable regular work positioning at divisions for which), allowing the turret to pass beneath the part. Patented by James Hartness of Jones & Lamson, and first disseminated in the 1890s, it was developed to provide more rigidity via requiring less overhang in the tool setup, especially when the part is relatively long.[7]
Hollow-hexagon turret lathe
Hollow-hexagon turret lathes competed with flat-turret lathes by taking the conventional hexagon In geometry, a hexagon is a polygon with six edges and six vertices. A regular hexagon has Schläfli symbol {6}. The total of the internal angles of any hexagon is 720 degrees turret and making it hollow, allowing the part to pass into it during the cut, analogously to how the part would pass over the flat turret. In both cases, the main idea is to increase rigidity by allowing a relatively long part to be turned without the tool overhang that would be needed with a conventional turret, which is not flat or hollow.
Monitor lathe
The term "monitor lathe" formerly (1860s-1940s) referred to the class of small- to medium-sized manual turret lathes used on relatively small work. The name was inspired by the monitor-class warships A monitor was a type of relatively small warship which was neither fast nor strongly armoured but carried disproportionately large guns and was used by some navies from the 1860s until the end of the Second World War. The monitors of the 19th century were turreted ironclad warships inspired by the original USS Monitor; as well as coastal ships, which the monitor lathe's turret resembled. Today, lathes of such appearance, such as the Hardinge DSM-59 and its many clones, are still common, but the name "monitor lathe" is no longer current in the industry.
Toolpost turrets and tailstock turrets
Turrets can be added to non-turret lathes (bench lathes, engine lathes, toolroom lathes, etc.) by mounting them on the toolpost, tailstock, or both. Often these turrets are not as large as a turret lathe's, and they usually do not offer the sliding and stopping that a turret lathe's turret does; but they do offer the ability to index through successive tool settings.
Significance of turret lathes to the history of technology
Q. this is one type of lathe machine
Asked by Mark - Tue Aug 21 06:15:24 2007 - - 1 Answers - 0 Comments
A. saddle , turret, parting tool post at rear end of carry over,spindle,head stock,motor 4 running spindle,bed,guide ways,gears 4 power transmission 4rm motor 2 spindle and also 4 controlling speed.
Answered by deva k - Wed Aug 22 12:44:45 2007
