Vertical Machining Centers And Their Most Common Applications

Vertical Machining Centers (VMC) are most probably the most common metalworking machine found in every workshop around the world. Their operating principle is based on a rotating milling head that is placed on the top while the workpiece is mounted on an adjustable table at a plane that is parallel to the ground.

VMMs come in two types that boast different sets of capabilities and thus they are suitable for different applications. The first type is the "bed mill" that allows the workpiece table to move perpendicular to the rotating axis of the cutter. The other type is the "turret mill" that lets the workpiece table move parallel to the cutting tool in addition to the perpendicular direction.

Vertical Machining Centers (VMC) are most probably the most common metalworking machine found in every workshop around the world. Their operating principle is based on a rotating milling head that is placed on the top while the workpiece is mounted on an adjustable table at a plane that is parallel to the ground.

VMMs come in two types that boast different sets of capabilities and thus they are suitable for different applications. The first type is the "bed mill" that allows the workpiece table to move perpendicular to the rotating axis of the cutter. The other type is the "turret mill" that lets the workpiece table move parallel to the cutting tool in addition to the perpendicular direction.

Advantages over Horizontal Centers

Vertical machining centers are much faster and easier to set up compared to the larger and more heavy duty horizontal millers. This makes them ideal for the processing of smaller parts, or for performing less demanding metalworking tasks. In addition to this, vertical mills can perform much more intricate work at very tight tolerances, something that is practically impossible with most horizontal centers. Another significant difference is the retractable quill that is available in VMCs and helps in the accurate boring of holes.

Ways VMCs Are Used

Vertical Machining Centers can be used in a wide scope of metal processing tasks depending on the expertise and different cutting heads, rotary tables or offset boring heads that may be available. Here is a list with the most common uses for this type of machine tool:

1. Face or slab milling is the most obvious application of a VMM. The workpiece is mounted parallel to the working table as the cutting head removes material from the top surface, flattening, indentation or leveling the processed item.

2. In a similar way, if the workpiece is silently mounted, the milling is performed in an inclination. This angular cutting can produce dovetails for joints.

3. For even more demanding and complex results, there is the straddle milling that involves two parallel milling cutters mounted on the same arbor and separated by an exact spacing. This makes the simultaneous cutting of two points possible, which is very useful when in need to mill hexagons of bolt heads for example. This will also need the addition of a rotary index table as the milling arbor is not rotatable.

4. In the same way, machinists can also achieve high fidelity concaves or simply remove any rough edges through corner rounding. This required good calculation and measurement skills to get right.

5. Using special key-slot cutting heads that boast certain diameter and width, machinists can mill keyways along the axis of shafts. These keyways can have different shapes such as squares or round-end for example.

6. Spline and gear milling is also possible using vertical milling centers following the straddle milling principles.

7. Finally, vertical mills can drill and bore holes thanks to their adequate speed and torque values, as well as their retractable quill that helps in the accuracy part of the process.

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Industries And Jobs That Deep Hole Drilling Machines Are Used In

Gun drills are basically straight fluted rods that use highly pressurized fluids to achieve cutting into great depth in metal materials. The depth to diameter ratios that can be realized by those specialized tools ranges from 250 to 500.

Around this fluted rod that is essentially the drill, circulates the coolant that keeps drilling temperatures below melting point for both the drill and the workpiece while the chips that are produced from the process flow outside the drilled hole.

Features

The tip of the gun drill itself is the point that is called to withstand the deformation forces generated by the extreme pressures. For this reason, gun drill manufacturers choose the strongest metal alloys and composite materials that stay unaffected by intense pressure and sudden temperature changes for many years of operation.

In order for a gun drill to deliver the required levels of drilling accuracy, everything has to work precisely as intended and the affecting factors must all be carefully calibrated. This suggests for extreme manufacturing quality and the cost is naturally the equivalent. The speed with which gun drill machines can cut through rigid metals such as steel can reach up to 75 cm per minute. This makes up for the increased cost as speed of processing dramatically increases.

Uses

Gun Barrels

The most obvious use scenario for the gun drilling machines is for the drilling of gun barrels, which is where this specialized tool got its name from. Gun drills are ideal for the boring of such long holes into rigid metal materials.

The smoothness of the gun barrel's inner surface that only gun drills can achieve ensures that the projectiles will travel straight inside the barrel. The accuracy of the gun drills guarantees the homogeneous heating of the barrel, durability to explosive forces and long lifetimes. Before gun drilling machines were available, casting was used for the production of gun barrels.

Molds and Dies

Another case of gun drilling machine application is for the manufacturing of molds that are suitable for the production of metal parts or tools. In this case, gun drills are especially useful as the molten material may have to be inserted through a relatively long hole and into the casting mold.

Tool Manufacturing

A popular application for gun drills is tool manufacturing. There are several types of mechanical tools that feature deep holes that serve as fitting positions for extensions etc. Deep hole drilling machines can help boring the hardened alloys that tools are made of and can even achieve polygonal features.

Musical Instruments
Last, gun drilling machines are extensively used in the music instrument manufacturing industry and especially for wind instruments that require deep holes of small diameter. These instruments can be flutes, oboes, bassoons, saxophones, clarinets, trumpets, ocarinas and reeds. As most of these instruments are made out of brass and other soft metals, gun drill machines are required to work with precision and delicacy as the slightest deformation will result in wrong tonal performance. 

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