Lab Report CNC Lathe

Design & manufacture 2 CNC Turning Machine

Group 20 Peter Van der Put Abdrarman farag Salem Shuli

Objective: To learn how to fully use a CNC Turning machine, from understanding how to design the work piece to learning how to safely operate the machinery and its many functions, such as drilling, roughing, facing and threading.

Brief: A lathe is a machine tool which rotates the work piece on its axis to perform various operations such as cutting, sanding, knurling, drilling, or deformation with tools that are applied to the work piece to create an object which has symmetry about an axis of rotation. Computer numerical controlled (CNC) lathes are rapidly replacing the older production lathes due to their ease of setting, operation, repeatability and accuracy. The part may be designed and the tool paths programmed by the CAD/CAM process or manually by the programmer, and the resulting file uploaded to the machine, and once set and trialed the machine will continue to turn out parts under the occasional supervision of an operator. The machine is controlled electronically via a computer menu style interface, thus the program may be modified and displayed at the machine, along with a simulated view of the process.

Safety: Due to the nature of its operations, the machine produces sharp shards as leftovers of cut material, thus making it necessary for the operator to wear protection gloves (1) while fixing/moving the work piece and/or tools. With this specific CNC machine, safety goggles weren’t necessary as the machine has a protection screen that completely covers the workspace while it is operated. It is important to note that the use of safety goggles is compulsory otherwise. The use of a lab coat is usually recommended with machines that might propel liquids and shards out, however this was not the case. It is important to note that the use of closed shoes (2) is mandatory for those entering the lab. The CNC Lathe machine has an Emergency stop button (3) in case any unforeseen dangerous situation/mechanical failure occurs.

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Raw materials and Tools: Our piece was manufactured on a solid Aluminum cylinder of thickness 19.7mm and unimportant length (4). The tools (drilling/cutting) were already fixed onto the machine (5). A digital Vernier caliper (6) was used to take measurements.

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Uses of a Lathe machine: A Lathe can be used for manufacturing any cylindrical piece, no matter how much detail goes into it as long as the piece is symmetrical to the spinning axis of the lathe.

Examples:

How to operate the CNC Lathe: Having the design in hand, the first step is to open the machine’s software (Boxford v10 CAD/CAM) and select the correct machine (in this case, Lathe (160TCL)-Serial #9318). After that, the machine’s menu will be presented and at this stage, we used the CAD NEW option (as we have yet to learn G code) to reproduce the design. The first step is to enter details such as creator and primary dimensions (out dimension; inside dimensions; length; hole depth). When that is done, a 2D grid is produced, in which the operator will draw the piece to be cut. After the shape is done and saved, the operator should launch a 3D render application, which will give the final looks of the work piece. After that, go to File>Process Billet to insert parameters such as Material and dimensions. The software will then give the operator a simulation of the work process and look for possible erros and failures. If the design passes, the operator will be able to click the machine icon, leading to the final manufacturing of the piece. When that is done, the software will ask you to follow some steps: Cancer manual mode; press Auto Home; enter current turret position (written behind the tool which is currently in use); fit the work piece into chuck; press cycle start. Now the machine will start to manufacture the piece and a real time simulation will be shown onscreen. At this point, the operator should supervise the machine in case of unforeseen scenarios such as mechanical failure. After some minutes, the final work piece (7) will be ready.

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