What is a lathe machine? its parts, operations, types with PDF

A lathe is a very important machine tool used widely by manufacturing industries today. It is an important machine tool in manufacturing industries due to its versatility.
According to Wikipedia, there is evidence that lathes were used as early as 1300 BC by the Ancient Egyptians. {alertInfo}
As time passed by, metalworking lathes were invented during the industrial revolution.
What is a lathe machine?
A lathe is a machine tool that holds the workpiece between rigid and strong supports. It removes material by turning it against the cutting tool which will remove metal from work in the form of chips.
Now a days CNC lathe machines i.e automated lathe machines are quite well known.
Must Read: Types of CNC machines. {alertSuccess}
#1 Lathe Bed
The lathe bed is the guiding member of the lathe machine so it needs to satisfy the following condition.
- It should be sufficiently rigid to prevent deflection
- It must be massive with sufficient depth and width to absorb vibration
- It must resist the twisting
- To avoid distortion the bed material should have high compressive strength, should be wear-resistant, and absorb vibration. For this purpose Cast iron is alloyed with nickel and chromium is used for manufacturing lathe beds.
#2 Headstock
It comprises essentially a hollow spindle and mechanism for driving and controlling the spindle speed.
#3 Chuck
#4 Tailstock
This has two main use:
- It supports the other end of the work
- It holds a tool for performing an operation such as drilling, reaming, tapping, etc.
#5 Lead screw
#6 Feed rod or Feed shaft
#7 Carriage
- Saddle
- Cross-slide
- Compound slide
- Tool post
- Apron
#8 Saddle
#9 Cross slide
#10 Compound slide
#11 Tool post
#12 Apron
#13 Feed Mechanism
Longitudinal (For length)
Latitudinal (For depth)
Angular (For taper)
Working of Lathe machine
The operator first loosens up the jaws of the chuck, inserts the workpiece, and then tightens it up firmly with the help of a chuck key.
The chuck is connected to the motor via gear drive or belt drive and hence provides rotary motion to the workpiece. The tool is fed against the revolving work, the cutting tool is rigidly held and supported as you can see above.
The cutting tool is fed either parallel, perpendicular, or at an angle to the workpiece axis.
Fun Fact: Woodworking lathes are the oldest lathe machine. Other variations are descended from this simple lathe. {alertInfo}
Operations performed on Lathe machine
- Straight turning
- Shoulder turning
- Chamfering
- Thread cutting
- Facing
- Knurling
- Filling
- Taper turning
- Eccentric turning
- Polishing
- Grooving
- Spinning
- Spring winding
- Forming
- Drilling
- Reaming
- Borning
- Counterboring
- Taperboring
- External thread cutting
- Internal thread cutting
- Tapping
- Undercutting
- Parting-off
- Grinding
- Milling
Important terms related to lathe machine
Cutting Speed of lathe
Feed of lathe
Depth of cut
Depth of cut = d1-d2 / 2
Where,
d1 = Diameter of the surface before machining
d2 = Diameter of the machined surface
The depth of cut varies inversely with the cutting speed.
Types of Lathe Machine
- Speed Lathe.
- Engine Lathe.
- Bench Lathe.
- Toolroom Lathe.
- Capstan and Turret Lathe.
- Special purpose lathe machine.
- CNC lathe machine.
That’s an overview of the Lathe Machine. If you like this post, do let us know about it in the comments and share it with fellow engineers with the social links below.
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