Metal-cutting machines are industrial machines, the main purpose of which is to process the required material to the required condition. This can happen both by deformation and by removing chips. But, in addition to metal processing, this technique can be used in other industries. For example, they can be used to grind plastics, non-metallic materials such as glass, wood or even ceramics. For their processing, of course, special equipment is required, but, nevertheless, it can be attributed to this category of machines.
There are many classifications of these production machines. The main differences are the nature and type of work and the precision of the workpiece. Thus, metal-cutting machines here can be structured by the following types:
1. By the nature of the work performed .
- Lathe (by rotating the workpiece, the surface of the metal is processed);
- Drilling (forming the necessary holes in the material);
- Grinding (a grinding wheel is used as a cutting tool);
- Milling (equipment is used, which consists of a large number of blades, called milling cutters);
- Slitting (cutting and sawing work material);
- Thread processing (manufacturing of the required thread) and others.
2. By specialization or versatility of equipment .
- Universal (mainly used in small-scale or even one-off production of products, and can also perform many functions);
- Special (justified to use in mass production, to perform the same type, similar tasks);
- Specialized (used in medium production for the manufacture of parts of the same type, but, for example, different sizes).
3. By accuracy class .
- High accuracy
- Normal accuracy;
- Exceptional accuracy.
4. By degree of automation .
- Fully automated machines (automatic machines). After the cycle is set, all stages of production occur automatically without human intervention.
- Semi-automatic machines. The process is quite automated, but the loading and unloading of material from the machine is carried out by the operating personnel.
5. By weight of the metal-cutting machine .
- light (less than 1 ton);
- medium (from 1 to 10 tons);
- heavy (from 10 to 100 tons);
- extra heavy (over 100 tons).
