What is milling and where is it applied?
What is milling and where is it applied?
Machining refers to the processing of material by machines or people. During machining, chips are removed from the basic product, hence the word machining.
By machining a material, the product becomes smaller and often takes on a different shape. Because material is removed, the mass and weight of the basic product decreases. Because there are different forms of machining, we have described a number of examples of machining below. We also explain the applications of the different types of chipping..
Examples of machining?
The best example of chipping is a carpenter who uses a planer to scrape chips from a door in order to make it a perfect fit for the frame.
Because chips are scraped off the door during this process, the door not only becomes smaller but also lighter.
Due to the machining by the carpenter, the shape of the door will also change.
Because the material is removed or scraped off by the carpenter can no longer be replaced, it is important that the carpenter pays close attention to how much material he collects from the door. The curls created during this process are called chips and form the waste that will be disposed of after chipping.
Machining techniques
Nowadays a number of machining operations are possible.
Depending on the purpose to be achieved, a machining technique is selected.
If it is desirable to drill holes in the material, this can be done by means of a column drill.
This drilling is also a machining technique.
The other techniques that can be used to make a material to measure are for example sawing, but also planing and filing.
Of course it is also possible to sharpen metal, for example, but also turning, milling, boring, honing, sticking, tapping and gouging (of wood) are part of the machining operations so that any material can be made to measure.
Turning and milling
Turning and milling are the more special forms of machining operations.
Turning a material is done on a lathe and milling a material is done on a milling machine.
These 2 types of machining operations make it possible to change the shape of a raw material to a large extent.
Turning and milling are not only used in mechanical engineering, but also in the woodworking industry.
Because nowadays milling and turning can be done by man or machine, we speak of conventional turning and milling if the milling process is carried out manually by people.
The computer-controlled form of milling or turning is called CNC (Computer Numerical Control) and means that these machines are computer-controlled..
Application of chipping in technology
Within the technique, machining is applied quite widely.
It is used to process wood, metals and plastics because these materials can generally be chipped well.
Within the wood processing industry, for example, machining is used for the furniture industry. Think of making stairs and for woodcarvings that have been applied as a finish for the ornamental purpose. Of course, the wood industry also drills many holes and saws boards to size.
In mechanical engineering, it is the machine factories where machining is used for turning shafts or for making machine parts that can be made to measure by milling.
Parts are also machined in the oil and petrochemical sector.
Machining safety
Safety is an important aspect of the machining process as it involves the use of saws, drills and chisels.
The tools used are sharp and must be handled properly to avoid damage or injury.
For example, rotating tools can grip garments and quickly tighten or even tear them apart.
You can imagine that serious accidents can also occur if safety is not taken into account.
In addition, the metal shavings and wood shavings are often razor-sharp and must be disposed of anyway.
It is therefore important that the chips do not come close to the eyes of the chipper or other personnel.
Wearing safety goggles is therefore certainly not an unnecessary luxury and in many cases mandatory.
As standard, many turning and milling machines have a special safety cover with which the machine can be closed. This allows the operator to stand safely behind a transparent screen so that he or she still has a clear view of the process.
Machining Outsourcing
You can see that machining materials is a task for the real craftsmen.
For example, a machine tool does not only need to keep its knowledge up to date because more and more different CNC machines are being used.
It is important that a machine tool can not only provide the machines with new materials that need to be machined, but a good machine tool can also program a CNC machine independently so that the machine performs the correct operation for the product..
Before a machine tool can become an independent CNC programmer, he or she must have built up the necessary experience and a great deal of material knowledge..