Tool, Dies and Moulds Report
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TOOL, DIES AND MOULDS REPORT 1. WHAT IS TOOLING? The equipment required to convert raw material into a required shape is commonly referred to as tooling. The process of equipment manufacture that aids in the conversion of a raw material into a required shape is commonly referred to as tool, die and mould making. Materials converted include: • Metals • Aluminium • Polymers (Plastics) Tooling is found in almost all manufacturing industries including: • Automotive • Aerospace • Rail & Marine • Defense • Mining • Agro-processing • Mineral beneficiation • Leisure • Packaging (foodstuffs, consumer goods and electronics) The manufacturing industry is dependant on the availability of a good tool, die and mould making industry. Tools, dies and moulds directly contribute to: • Manufacturing output capacity, • Quality standard of a product produced, • Price competitiveness of the product produced, • Lifecycle cost of a product produced. 1 2. DEFINITION OF INDIVIDUAL AREAS OF TOOL, DIES AND MOULDS. I. WHAT IS A TOOL? A machine tool is a powered mechanical device, typically used to fabricate metal components of machines by machining, which is the selective removal of metal. The term machine tool is usually reserved for tools that used a power source other than human movement, but they can be powered by people if appropriately set up. Many historians of technology consider that the true machine tools were born when direct human involvement was removed from the shaping or stamping process of the different kinds of tools. Machine tools can be powered from a variety of sources. Human and animal power are options, as is energy captured through the use of waterwheels. However, machine tools really began to develop after the development of the steam engine, leading to the Industrial Revolution. Today, most are powered by electricity. Machine tools can be operated manually, or under automatic control. Early machines used flywheels to stabilize their motion and had complex systems of gears and levers to control the machine and the piece being worked on. Soon after World War II, the NC, or numerical control, machine was developed. NC machines used a series of numbers punched on paper tape or punch cards to control their motion. In the 1960s, computers were added to give even more flexibility to the process. Such machines became known as CNC, or computerized numerical control, machines. NC and CNC machines could precisely repeat sequences over and over, and could produce much more complex pieces than even the most skilled tool operators. Before long, the machines could automatically change the specific cutting and shaping tools that were being used. For example, a drill machine might contain a magazine with a variety of drill bits for producing holes of various sizes. Previously, either machine operators would usually have to manually change the bit or move the work piece to another station to perform these different operations. The next logical step was to combine several different machine tools together, all under computer control. These are known as machining centers, and have dramatically changed the way parts are made. From the simplest to the most complex, most machine tools are capable of at least partial self-replication since they are machines, and produce machine parts as their primary function. Examples of machine tools are: Broaching machine. A broach is a series of progressively taller chisel points mounted on a single piece of steel, typically used to enlarge a circular hole into a larger noncircular shape such as a square or other desired shape. 2 Drill press. A drill press (also known as pedestal drill, pillar drill, or bench drill) is a fixed style of drill that may be mounted on a stand or bolted to the floor or workbench. A drill press consists of a base, column (or pillar), table, spindle (or quill), and drill head, usually driven by an induction motor. The head has a set of handles (usually 3) radiating from a central hub that, when turned, move the spindle and chuck vertically, parallel to the axis of the column. The table can be adjusted vertically and is generally moved by a rack and pinion; however, some older models rely on the operator to lift and reclamp the table in position. The table may also be offset from the spindle's axis and in some cases rotated to a position perpendicular to the column. The size of a drill press is typically measured in terms of swing. Swing is defined as twice the throat distance, which is the distance from the center of the spindle to the closest edge of the pillar. For example, a 16- inch drill press will have an 8-inch throat distance. Gear shaper. A gear shaper is a machine tool for cutting the teeth of internal or external gears. The name shaper relates to the fact that the cutter engages the part on the forward stroke and pulls away from the part on the return stroke, just like the clapper box on a planer shaper. To cut external teeth, a different machine called a hobbing machine can be used. The cutting tool is also gear shaped having the same pitch as the gear to be cut. However number of cutting teeth must be less than that of the gear to be cut for internal gears. For external gears the number of teeth on the cutter is limited only by the size of the shaping machine Hobbing machine. A hobbing machine is a special form of milling machine that cuts gears. It is the major industrial process for cutting (as opposed to grinding) spur gears of involute form. The machine forms the gear via a generating process by rotating the gear blank and the cutter (called a hob) at the same time with a fixed gearing ratio between hob and blank. The hob has a profile given in cross-section by the fundamental rack for the gear tooth profile and is in the form of a helix so that the sides of the teeth on the hob generate the curve on the gear. The helix has a number of cuts parallel to the axis to form the cutting teeth and the profile is suitably relieved to provide cutting clearance. Hone. A hone is a machine tool used in the manufacture of precision bores to improve the geometry, surface finish and dimensional control of the finished part. This process is called honing. Typical applications are the finishing of cylinders for internal combustion engines, air bearing spindles and in gear manufacturing. Types of hone are many and various but all consist of one or more abrasive stones that are held under pressure against the surface they are working on. Lathe. A lathe is a machine tool which spins a block of material to perform various operations such as cutting, sanding, knurling, drilling, or deformation with tools that are applied to the workpiece to create an object which has symmetry about an axis of rotation. 3 Lathes are used in woodturning, metalworking, metal spinning, and glassworking. Lathes can be used to shape pottery, the best-known design being the potter's wheel. Most suitably equipped metalworking lathes can also be used to produce most solids of revolution, plane surfaces and screw threads or helices. Ornamental lathes can produce three-dimensional solids of incredible complexity. The material is held in place by either one or two centers, at least one of which can be moved horizontally to accommodate varying material lengths. Examples of objects that can be produced on a lathe include candlestick holders, cue sticks, table legs, bowls, baseball bats, crankshafts and camshafts. Milling machine. A milling machine is a machine tool used for the complex shaping of metal and other solid materials. Its basic form is that of a rotating cutter or endmill which rotates about the spindle axis (similar to a drill), and a movable table to which the workpiece is affixed. That is to say, the cutting tool generally remains stationary (except for its rotation) while the workpiece moves to accomplish the cutting action. Milling machines may be operated manually or under computer numerical control (CNC). Milling machines can perform a vast number of complex operations, such as slot cutting, planing, drilling, rebating, routing, etc. Shaper. A shaper is a machine tool used for shaping or surfacing metal and other materials. Planer. A planer is a type of metalworking machine tool that is analogous to a shaper, but larger, and with the entire workpiece moving beneath the cutter, instead of the cutter moving above a stationary workpiece. The work table is moved back and forth on the bed beneath the cutting head either by mechanical means, such as a rack and pinion gear, or by a hydraulic cylinder. Planers and shapers were used generally for two types of work: generating accurate flat surfaces and cutting slots (such as keyways). Planers and shapers are now obsolescent, because milling machines have eclipsed them as the machine tools of choice for doing such work. However, they have not yet entirely disappeared from the metalworking world Stewart platform mills. A Stewart platform is a kind of parallel manipulator using an octahedral assembly of struts. A Stewart platform has six degrees of freedom (x, y, z, pitch, roll, & yaw). Grinders. A grinding machine is a machine tool used for producing very fine finishes or making very light cuts, using an abrasive wheel as the cutting device. This wheel can be made up of various sizes and types of stones, diamonds or of inorganic materials. For machines used to reduce particle size in materials processing see grinding. 4 II. WHAT IS A DIE? A die is a specialized tool used in manufacturing industries to cut, shape and form a wide variety of products and components.