Machine Shop Theory

Module no. 4

Classification, Applications and Operations of

Machines

Engr. Augusto A. Avanceña

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 Classification, Applications and Operations of
Machines
OVERVIEW

The discussion in this module is all about milling machine. It includes

different type, parts, operations, and specifications of milling machine. An
activity is also included to further enhance the knowledge of the students.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOME:

CLO1. Demonstrate skills in the use of the different machines.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

At the end of this module, you should be able to;

1. Understand what is milling machine.

2. Understand the different applications of milling machine.
3. Understand the different operations of milling machine.

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LEARNING ACTIVITY:

MILLING MACHINE

Introduction

A milling machine is a machine tool that removes metal as the work is fed
against a rotating multipoint cutter. The milling cutter rotates at high speed and
it removes metal at a very fast rate with the help of multiple cutting edges.
One or more number of cutters can be mounted simultaneously on the arbor
of milling machine. This is the reason that a milling machine finds wide
application in production work. Milling machine is used for machining flat
surfaces, contoured surfaces, surfaces of revolution, external and internal
threads, and helical surfaces of various cross-sections.

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Common types of milling machines

Milling machine rotates the cutter mounted on the arbor of the machine and
at the same time automatically feed the work in the required direction. The
milling machine may be classified in several forms, but the choice of any
particular machine is determined primarily by the size of the work piece to be
undertaken and operations to be performed. According to general design,
the distinctive types of milling machines are:

1. Column and knee type milling 5. Special types of milling machines

machines a) Rotary table milling machine.
a) Hand milling machine b) Planetary milling machine.
b) Horizontal milling machine c) Profiling machine.
c) Universal milling machine d) Duplicating machine.
d) Vertical milling machine e) Pantograph milling machine.
f) Continuous milling machine.
2. Planer milling machine g) Drum milling machine
3. Fixed-bed type milling machine h) Profiling and tracer controlled
a) Simplex milling machine. milling machine
b) Duplex milling machine.
c) Triplex milling machine.

4. Machining center machines

Principles of milling

In milling machine, the metal is cut by means of a rotating cutter having

multiple cutting edges. For cutting operation, the work piece is fed against the
rotary cutter. As the work piece moves against the cutting edges of milling
cutter, metal is removed in form chips of trochoid shape. Machined surface is
formed in one or more passes of the work. The work to be machined is held in
a vice, a rotary table, a three jaw chuck, an index head, between centers, in
a special fixture or bolted to machine table. The rotatory speed of the cutting
tool and the feed rate of the work piece depend upon the type of material
being machined.

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Principal parts of a milling machine

1. Base
It is a foundation member and it carries the column at its one end. In some
machines, the base is hollow and serves as a reservoir for cutting fluid.

2. Column
The column is the main supporting member mounted vertically on the base. It
is box shaped, heavily ribbed inside and houses all the driving mechanism for
the spindle and table feed. The front vertical face of the column is accurately
machined and is provided with dovetail guide way for supporting the knee.

3. Knee
The knee is a rigid grey iron casting which slides up and down on the vertical
ways of the column face. An elevating screw mounted on the base is used to
adjust the height of the knee and it also supports the knee.

4. Saddle
The saddle is placed on the top of the knee and it slides on guide ways set
exactly at 90° to the column face. The top of the saddle provides guide-ways
for the table.

5. Table
The table rests on ways on the saddle and travels longitudinally. A lead screw
under the table engages a nut on the saddle to move the table horizontally
by hand or power. In universal machines, the table may also be swiveled
horizontally. For this purpose the table is mounted on a circular base. The top

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of the table is accurately finished and T -slots are provided for clamping the
work and other fixtures on it

6. Overhanging arm
It is mounted on the top of the column, which extends beyond the column
face and serves as a bearing support for the other end of the arbor.

7. Front brace
It is an extra support, which is fitted between the knee and the over-arm to
ensure further rigidity to the arbor and the knee.

8. Spindle
It is situated in the upper part of the column and receives power from the motor
through belts, gears and clutches and transmit it to the arbor.

9. Arbor
It is like an extension of the machine spindle on which milling cutters are
securely mounted and rotated. The arbors are made with taper shanks for
proper alignment with the machine spindles having taper holes at their nose.
The arbor assembly consists of the following components.
1. Arbor
2. Spindle
3. Spacing collars
4. Bearing bush
5. Cutter
6. Draw bolt
7. Lock nut
8. Key block
9. Set screw

Milling methods

There are two distinct methods of milling classified as follows:

1. Up-milling or conventional milling
2. Down milling or climb milling.

Up-milling or conventional milling

In the up-milling or conventional milling, the metal is removed in form of small

chips by a cutter rotating against the direction of travel of the work piece. In
this type of milling, the chip thickness is minimum at the start of the cut and
maximum at the end of cut. As a result the cutting force also varies from zero
to the maximum value per tooth movement of the milling cutter. The major
disadvantages of up-milling process are the tendency of cutting force to lift

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the work from the fixtures and poor surface finish obtained. But being a safer
process, it is commonly used method of milling.

Down-milling or climb milling

In this method, the metal is removed by a cutter rotating in the same direction
of feed of the work piece. Chip thickness is maximum at the start of the cut
and minimum in the end. In this method, there is less friction involved and
consequently less heat is generated on the contact surface of the cutter and
work piece. Climb milling can be used advantageously on many kinds of work
to increase the number of pieces per sharpening and to produce a better
finish. With climb milling, saws cut long thin slots more satisfactorily than with
standard milling. Another advantage is that slightly lower power consumption
is obtainable by climb milling, since there is no need to drive the table against
the cutter.

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Various milling machine operations

Following different operations can be performed on a milling machine:

1. Plain milling operation
2. Face milling operation
3. Side milling operation
4. Straddle milling operation
5. Angular milling operation
6. Gang milling operation
7. Form milling operation
8. Profile milling operation
9. End milling operation
10. Saw milling operation
11. Slot milling operation
12. Gear cutting operation
13. Helical milling operation
14. Cam milling operation
15. Thread milling operation

Plain Milling Operation

This is also called slab milling. This operation produces flat surfaces on the work
piece. Feed and depth of cut are selected, rotating milling cutter is moved
from one end of the work piece to other end to complete the one pairs of
plain milling operation.

Face Milling

This operation produces flat surface at the

face on the work piece. This surface is
perpendicular to the surface prepared in
plain milling operation. This operation is
performed by face milling cutter mounted
on stub arbor of milling machine. Depth of
cut is set according to the need and cross
feed is given to the work table.

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Side Milling Operation

This operation produces flat and vertical surfaces at the sides of the work
piece. In this operation depth of cut is adjusted by adjusting vertical feed screw
of the work piece.

Straddle Milling Operation

This is similar to the side milling operation. Two side milling cutters are mounted
on the same arbor. Distance between them is so adjusted that both sides of
the work piece can be milled simultaneously. Hexagonal bolt can be
produced by this operation by rotating the work piece only two times as this
operation produces two parallel faces of bolt simultaneously.

Angular Milling Operation

Angular milling operation is used to produce angular surface on the work

piece. The produced surface makes an angle with the axis of spindle which is
not right angle. Production of ‘V‟ shaped groove is the example of angular
milling operation.

Gang Milling Operation

As the name indicates, this operation produces several surfaces of a work

piece simultaneously using a gang of milling cutters. During this operation, the
work piece mounted on the table is fed against the revolving milling cutters.

Form Milling

This operation produces irregular contours on the work surface. These irregular
contours may be convex, concave, or of any other shape. This operation is
done comparatively at very low cutter speed than plain milling operation.

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Profile Milling

In this operation a template of complex shape or master die is used. A tracer

and milling cutter are synchronized together with respect to their movements.
Tracer reads the template or master die and milling cutter generates the same
shape on the work piece. Profile milling is an operation used to generate shape
of a template or die.

End Milling

End milling operation produces flat vertical surfaces, flat horizontal surfaces
and other flat surfaces making an angle from table surface using milling cutter
named as end mill. This operation is preferably carried out on vertical milling
machine.

Saw Milling

Saw milling operation produces narrow slots or grooves into the work piece
using saw milling cutter. This operation is also used to cut the work piece into
two equal or unequal pieces which cut is also known as “parting off”.

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Slot Milling Operation

The operation of producing keyways, grooves, slots of varying shapes and sizes
is called slot milling operation. Slot milling operation can use any type of milling
cutter like plain milling cutter, metal slitting saw or side milling cutter. Selection
of a cutter depends upon type and size of slot or groove to be produced.

Gear Cutting Operation

The operation of gear cutting is cutting of equally spaced, identical gear teeth
on a gear blank by handling it on a universal dividing head and then indexing
it. The cutter used for this operation is cylindrical type or end mill type. The cutter
selection also depends upon tooth profile and their spacing.

Helical Milling Operation

Helical milling produces helical flutes or grooves on the periphery of a

cylindrical or conical work piece. This is performed by swiveling the table to the
required helix angle, then rotating and feeding the work piece against
revolving cutting edges of milling cutter. Helical gears and drills and reamers
are made by this operation.

Cam Milling Operation

The operation cam milling is used to produce the cam on milling machine. In
this operation cam blank is mounted at the end of the dividing head spindle
and the end mill is held in the vertical milling attachment.

Thread Milling Operation

The operation thread milling produces threads using thread milling centres. This
operation needs three simultaneous movements revolving movement of
cutter, simultaneous longitudinal movement of cutter, feed movement to the
work piece through table. For each thread, the revolving cutter is fed
longitudinal by a distance equal to pitch of the thread. Depth of cut is normally
adjusted equal to the full depth of threads.

Surfaces generated by milling machine

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Types of milling cutters

Milling cutters are made in various forms to perform certain classes of work,
and they may be classified as:
1. Plain milling cutter
2. Side milling cutter
3. Face milling cutter
4. Angle milling cutter
5. End milling cutter
6. Fly cutter
7. T-slot milling cutter
8. Formed cutter
9. Metal slitting saw

Plain milling cutter

These cutters are cylindrical in shape having teeth on their circumference.

These are used to produce flat surfaces parallel to axis of rotation. Depending
upon the size and applications plain milling cutters are categorized as light
duty, heavy duty and helical plain milling cutters.

Side milling cutter

Side milling cutters are used to remove metals from the side of work piece.
These cutters have teeth on the periphery and on its sides. These are further
categorized as plain side milling cutters having straight circumferential teeth.
Staggered teeth side milling cutters having alternate teeth with opposite helix
angle providing more chip space. Half side milling cutters have straight or

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helical teeth on its circumference and on its one side only. Circumferential
teeth do the actual cutting of metal while side teeth do the finishing work.

Face milling cutter

A face mill is an end mill optimised for facing cuts, whose teeth are arranged
in periphery. Some face mills are solid in construction, but many others feature
indexable teeth, with the cutter body designed to hold multiple disposable
carbide or ceramic tips or inserts, often golden in color. When the tips are blunt,
they may be removed, rotated (indexed) and replaced to present a fresh,
sharp face to the work piece. This increases the life of the tip and thus its
economical cutting life.

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Angular milling cutter

These cutters have conical surfaces with cutting edges over them. These are
used to machine angles other than 90°. Two types of angle milling cutters are
available single angle milling cutter and double angle milling cutter.

End milling cutter

End mills are used for cutting slots, small holes and light milling operations.
These cutters have teeth on their end as well as on periphery. The cutting
teeth may be straight or helical. Depending upon the shape of their shank,
these are categorized as discussed below.

1. Taper Shank Mill

Taper shank mill have tapered shank.

2. Straight Shank Mill

Straight shank mill having straight shank.

3. Shell End Mills

These are normally used for face milling operation. Cutters of different sizes can
be accommodated on a single common shank.

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Fly cutter

Fly cutters are the simplest form of cutters used to make contoured surfaces.
These cutters are the Single-pointed cutting tool with cutting end ground to
desired shape. These are mounted in special adapter or arbor. Used in
experimental work instead of a specially shaped cutter

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Slot cutter

These are the special form of milling cutters used to produce ‘T’ shaped slots in
the work piece. It consists of small side milling cutter with teeth on both sides
and integral shank for mounting.

Formed cutters

Formed cutters may have different types of profile on their cutting edges
which can generate different types of profile on the work pieces. Depending
upon tooth profile and their capabilities, formed cutters are categorized as
given below.

1. Convex Milling Cutters

These cutters have profile outwards at their circumference and used to

generate concave semicircular surface on the work piece.

2. Concave Milling Cutters

These milling cutters have teeth profile curve in words on their circumference.
These are used to generate convex semicircular surfaces.

3. Corner Rounding Milling Cutters

These cutters have teeth curved inwards. These milling cutters are used to form
contours of quarter circle. These are main used in making round corners and
round edges of the work piece.

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Metal slitting saw

These cutters are like plain or side milling cutters having very small width. These
are used for parting off operations. It is of two types. If teeth of this saw
resembles with plain milling cutter, it is called plain milling slitting saw. If its teeth
matches with staggered teeth side milling cutter, it is called staggered teeth
slitting saw.

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Indexing

Indexing is the operation of dividing the periphery of a work piece into any
number of equal parts. For example if we want to make a hexagonal bolt.
Head of the bolt is given hexagonal shape. We do indexing to divide circular
work piece into six equal parts and then all the six parts are milled to an
identical flat surface. If we want to cut ‘n‟ number of teeth in a gear blank. The
circumference of gear blank is divided into ‘n‟ number of equal parts and
teeth are made by milling operation one by one. The main component used
in indexing operation is universal dividing head.

Indexing methods

There are different indexing methods. These are:

1. Direct indexing
2. Simple indexing
3. Compound indexing
4. Differential indexing

Specification of a milling machine

Along with the type of a milling machine, it has to be specified by its size.
Generally size of a typical milling machine is designated as given below:
1. Size of the worktable and its movement range table length x table width as
900x275 mm.
2. Table movements: Longitudinal travel x Cross x Vertical as 600x200x400 mm.
3. Number of feeds available (specify their values).
4. Number of spindle speeds (specify their values).
5. Total power available.
6. Spindle nose taper.
7. Floor space required.
8. Net weight.

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ACTIVITY:

Assignment

1. Search for a short video of different milling machine operations and

application to further understand the process
2. Search for a short video of how indexing works.
3. Discuss the safety protocols on operating the milling machine.

Note: no. 1 and 2 is no need to submit. Just watch, so you may further
understand it for it may help for your future assessment.

OUTPUT:

Term Paper (ms word or pdf file) to be uploaded in your respective

folders.

REFERENCE:

B. E. SURESH. (2015). Notes on machine shop. Department of Technical

Education. Kerala State.

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