A Comprehensive Lecture Note

on
Machine Tools
And Machining

Dr. M.A. Hayat Mithu

 Lecture Note on Machine Tools and Machining

Lecture 1
Introduction to Machine Tools

At the end of this chapter, students will be able to explain

• What is a machine tool and the purpose of machine tool
• What are the general requirements of a machine tool
• How to classify the machine tools
• How is the productivity of a machine tool measured, and how to raise
productivity
• How a general purpose machine tool differs from a special machine
tool.

1.1 Introduction
A machine shop is a room, building, or factory where machining is done. In a
machine shop, operators use different types of hand tools and machine tools
along with the cutting tools to fabricate parts, usually of metal or plastic,
wood, glass, or a combination of materials. The parts produced can be the end
product of the factory to be sold to customers. The production process can
consist of cutting, shaping, drilling, finishing, and other processes related
to metalworking. Therefore, a machine shop is both an engineer's laboratory
and an artist’s studio. Each material and each operation require different
machines, but they all follow the same basic principles. By knowing the
possibilities and limitations of the tools, one can design an alternative method
for machining parts, machine complex shapes in hard and tougher materials.
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 Lecture Note on Machine Tools and Machining

1.2 Machine Tools

A machine tool is a machine for shaping or machining metal or other rigid
materials, usually by cutting, boring, grinding, shearing, or other forms of
deformation. Machine tools employ some sort of tool that does the cutting or
shaping. Therefore, “a machine tool is a machine that imparts the required
shape to a workpiece with the desired accuracy by removing excess metal
from the workpiece in the form of chips.”
The metal cutting process consists of removing excess layers of materials from
the blank, or job or workpiece of the required shape and dimensions and with
the specified quality of the surface finish. Considering all, a metal cutting
machine tool is a machine that is power-driven, capable of producing various
shapes in metal by cutting away surplus materials. So, in any metal cutting
process machine tools can be used for the following aims to be achieved:
o Workpiece dimension and shape should be accurate;
o Surface finish should be of desired quality;
o Metal removal rate should be high;
o Power consumed during the process should be minimum;
o Cutting tool life should be more.
The basic objectives of a machine tool are as follows:
• Accuracy and precision: depends upon the geometrical and kinematic
accuracy and the ability to retain accuracy during operation;
• Productivity: the volume of material removed per unit time from the
workpart;
• Safety and convenience: easy to use and should be safe for the worker
and be safe for the environment.
Machine tools are designed to achieve the maximum possible productivity and
to maintain the prescribed accuracy and the degree of surface finish over their
entire service life.

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 Lecture Note on Machine Tools and Machining

1.3 Productivity of Machine Tools

Productivity is commonly defined as a ratio between the output volume and
the volume of inputs. In other words, it measures how efficiently production
inputs, such as labor and capital, are being used in an economy to achieve a
given level of output. By the same concept, machine productivity is the ratio
of machine output and input.
Machine output
Machine productivity =
Machine input

Here, machine output is the number of goods produced by a machine, and

machine input is the number of running machines to produce those goods. In
the manufacturing industry, the output is a final visible good; so, it can be
measured productivity very easily. The general aspects of machining
technology are shown in Fig. 1.1.

Fig. 1.1 General aspects of machining technology.

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 Lecture Note on Machine Tools and Machining

The productivity of a machine tool is measured either:

o by the number of parts produced in a unit of time,
o by the volumetric removal rate, or
o by the specific removal rate per unit of power consumed.
As we know different measuring variables, several methods are used to raise
the productivity of a machine tool that includes:
✓ High machining speeds
✓ High feed rates
✓ Use of multiple cutting tools
✓ Stacking multiple parts as like as a single part
✓ Minimization of the secondary (noncutting) time
✓ Employ automatic feeding and tool changing mechanisms
✓ Use of high-power densities
Therefore, the productivity levels can be enhanced by:
• Increasing the machine speeds, feed rates, and depth of cut
• Increasing the machine tool available power (maximum power)
• Using multiple tools or several workpieces machined simultaneously
• Selecting the machining processes properly based on the machined
part material, shape complexity, accuracy, and surface integrity
• Evaluating the static and dynamic characteristics of machine tool
structure
• Introducing jigs and fixtures that locate and clamp the work parts in
the minimum possible time
• Increasing the traverse speed during the non-machining parts of the
production time
• Increasing the level of automation for the operative units and their
switching elements
• Adopting modern control techniques such as NC, CNC and DNC.

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 Lecture Note on Machine Tools and Machining

1.4 General Requirements of a Machine Tool

A machine tool should possess the following requirements:
• Low cost: initial cost and the production cost should be as low as
possible;
• High accuracy: should be capable of producing high-quality products
at the highest possible speed;
• High useful life: should render a trouble-free service with high
accuracy;
• Ease to manufacture: easier to manufacture and assemble various
parts;
• High production capacity: ability to machine a definite number of
workparts;
• Ease of operation: be easy to operate;
• Low maintenance cost: the cost should be low as much as possible;
• Reliability: retain its accuracy over a period of its life;
• Safety: reliable protection for the operator against accidents and
fatigue;
• Appearance or aesthetic looking should be proved by judgment.
Furthermore, the machine tool must have:
• High static stiffness of the different machine tool elements such as
structure, joints, and spindles, and dynamic stiffness
• Avoidance of unacceptable natural frequencies that cause resonance
of the machine tool
• Acceptable level of vibration
• Adequate damping capacity
• High speeds, feeds, and depth of cut
• Low rates of wear in the sliding parts
• Low thermal distortion of the different machine tool elements
• Low design, progress, maintenance, repair, and manufacturing costs.
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 Lecture Note on Machine Tools and Machining

1.5 Characteristics of Machine Tools

A machine tool should possess the following characteristics:
• It should be powerful and capable of operating at high speed;
• It should be rigid and have a well-balanced rotating part;
• It should be simple in design and should have a good appearance;
• It should provide facilities for reducing not only the machining time
but the handling time as well.
• It should be reliable and rapid clamping of workpiece and tool;
• Its’ cost of manufacturing and operation should be low;
• It should be durable and safe in operation;
• It should have an acceptable level of vibration, and sound
• It should have good lubricating facilities;
• There should be safety and convenience of controls such as –
o rotating and moving parts should be shielded with hoods;
o the worker should be protected from chips, abrasive dusts, and
hazardous coolants;
o the machine tool control system should be automated as large as
possible;
1.6 Classification of Machine Tools
In the field of mechanical engineering, ‘Machine’ is defined as an assembly
of mechanisms that are clustered together in such a way that it can perform
certain operations by utilizing electrical, mechanical, hydraulic and/or
pneumatic power, and thereby reducing the requirement of human effort.
Besides, a ‘machine tool’ is not exactly the same as a machine. The machine
tools must be power-driven, non-portable devices in which energy is utilized
in the deformation of material for shaping, sizing or processing a product to
the desired accuracy by removing the excess material in the form of chips with
the help of a relative motion between the cutting tool and the work-piece.
Machine tools can be divided into the following categories:
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 Lecture Note on Machine Tools and Machining

A. Machine tools are divided according to their size into the following types:
a. light duty (weighing less than 1 ton),
b. medium duty (1 to 10 tons), and
c. heavy duty (above 10 tons).

B. Classification according to the method of actuation:

a. manually operated,
b. semi-automatic, and
c. fully automated.

C. Another method of classification segregates machine tools according to

the purpose of operations:
a. General purpose machine tools, which can be used for a wide variety
of operations, on a range of sizes of workpieces, e.g., engine lathe, drill
press, etc.;
b. Single purpose machine tools, which are used for machining a single
operation, e.g., turning lathe, facing lathe, roll turning lathe etc.
c. Special purpose machine tools, which are used for machining articles
similar in shape but different in size, e.g., turret lathe, gear cutting
milling machine.
d. Limited purpose machine tools, which perform a narrow range of
operations on a wide variety of products for a limited range of
workpiece sizes and shapes.

D. Machine tools according to the types of motions used for removing

materials:
a. Rotary cutting machines,
• rotate workpiece (turning lathes, capstans, turrets, autos), or
• the cutting tool (drill, milling cutter, grinding wheel), or both
(cylindrical grinder).

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 Lecture Note on Machine Tools and Machining

b. Linear cutting machines,

• remove material by moving the tool (shaping, slotting), or
• the workpiece (planning, surface grinding), in a straight line.
E. Machine tools are divided according to their application of feed:
a. Axial feed machines, such as drilling machines that move the
workpiece/ tool, parallel to the axis of the machine spindle
b. Transverse feed machines, such as face milling machines that move
the workpiece or tool
c. Combined feed machines, such as center lathes and boring machines,
can use both types of feeds.

F. Machine tools are divided according to the level of accuracy into the
following categories:
a. Normal-accuracy machine tools, which include the majority of
general-purpose machines
b. Higher-accuracy machine tools, which are capable of producing finer
tolerances and have more accurate assembly and adjustments
c. Machine tools of super-high accuracy, which are capable of producing
very accurate parts.
General-purpose machine tools are standard accuracy machine tools. Above
standard accuracy machine tools are called higher accuracy machine tools,
with critical parts manufactured and assembly and adjustment. These high
accuracy machine tools have certain units that are designed for higher
accuracy operations. The precision machine tools have higher accuracy than
a high accuracy machine tool. The high-precision machine tools are intended
for making parts that require high precision operations and special operations.
G. According to blank type:
a. Bar type (lathes).
b. Chucking type (lathes).
c. Housing type.
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 Lecture Note on Machine Tools and Machining

H. According to the number of spindles:

a. Single spindle, e.g., center lathes, capstan lathes, milling machines,
etc.
b. Multi spindle, e.g., multi spindle (2 to 8), gang drilling machines, etc.
In the case of a drilling machine, a single spindle drilling machine is basically
used to drill small holes at high speeds in lighter jobs or workpieces. On the
other hand, a gang-type drilling machine or a multiple spindle drilling
machine is equipped with several spindles/ or stations mounted on one long
table to allow many holes to be drilled simultaneously.

1.7 Functions of Machine Tools

The functions of a machine tool are:
• It transmits power from the prime mover (such as an electric motor) to
the required location as and when necessary for cutting or machining
action.
• It provides necessary motions to accomplish cutting action. Such
motions include, but are not limited to, cutting velocity, feed motion,
depth of cut, etc.
• It also manipulates power and motion, including the transformation of
one type of motion to another type (such as rotation to translation or
oscillation), reduction or increase of speed, changing the direction of
rotation, etc.
• It supports and holds the workpiece and other necessary devices, such
as cutting tools, coolant pipeline, etc.
• It also transmits cutting force and vibration to the ground.
• Usually, it provides a better cutting fluid discharge facility.
• Finally, it provides an ergonomic platform for human workers to carry
out machining.
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