What Is A Machining Center? The Key Equipment For Processing Metal Parts

The further development of machine tool automation is the "machining center", which is usually equipped with automatic tool change equipment on the machine tool and has multiple control axes. The main purpose of the machining center is to reduce the production time and the advanced mechanism of the machining center.

What is a machining center

The design of a machining center is usually based on a milling machine, which is expanded by an automatic tool changer and a connected tool magazine. Due to the independent tool change, a particularly high degree of automation can be achieved with only one chipping operation. In addition, by using a so-called pallet system, the time for loading, unloading and clamping can be reduced. Here, the workpiece is clamped on a pallet and transported to the work area independently by the machining center, so that sometimes processing and workpiece conversion are carried out in parallel.
What is a machining center

The machining center is a multifunctional machine tool. Because a large number of tools can be used in the tool changer, it can flexibly perform a large number of mechanical operations, such as milling, boring, threading, and drilling. According to the function, the number of axes, the size of the work area, the position of the spindle and the available options, the machining center can be varied.

The machining center integrates the functions of a milling machine, a lathe and a drilling machine into one device, so it can be used for complete processing of complex workpieces. Here, each processing step can be programmed and run fully automatically with the highest precision. Especially in the production of small and medium-sized series, nowadays, machining centers are indispensable for fast and efficient production processes.

The emergence and development of machining centers

In addition to the use of many complex machining methods (such as drilling, boring (enlarged holes) and threading), the manufacture of metal parts usually includes grinding surfaces and grooves. Conventionally, different cutting tools such as milling cutters, end mills, drills, boring cutters, and taps are selectively used for these machining processes.

Later, with the emergence of CNC lathes, a manual tool change function called turret was developed to make tool change more convenient. The machining center takes this idea one step forward through computer-controlled automatic tool exchange. The machining center can continuously perform multiple types of machining on different surfaces of the workpiece at the same time, thereby greatly improving the production efficiency. Even today, as machining accuracy and speed increase year by year, machining centers are still constantly improving, making them an essential part of the manufacturing process. Visit any metal processing factory and see many processing centers constantly operating day after day. Only a few field operators are required to monitor the machine.

The machining center has a computer automatic tool change function. Usually, the operator must change tools on the NC machine tool. However, the machining center has a changing arm that can automatically retrieve and exchange tools from the tool library, and store the tools in the tool library when machining the workpiece. This saves the time and effort required for standard tool conversion, and thus realizes automation and energy-saving operations, while reducing costs.