Metal working – Plural diverse manufacturing apparatus including means for... – Common reciprocating support for spaced tools
Patent
1985-11-12
1987-10-20
Briggs, William R.
Metal working
Plural diverse manufacturing apparatus including means for...
Common reciprocating support for spaced tools
51168, 82 36A, B23Q 3155
Patent
active
047004533
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention concerns a lathe with a driving arrangement for a workpiece holding fixture, with a tailstock and with a tool post which can be moved on the bench.
Cylindrical shapes can be manufactured and worked with such lathes. However, in actual manufacturing it often turns out that workpieces with basic cylindrical shapes very often have to undergo subsequent milling or drilling work. Such work includes, for instance, the manufacture of round plugs with internal or external threads of larger dimensions.
One possible solution lies in having to rechuck the workpiece after the turning in one or even several expensive other tool machines, each performing one work operation only.
In order to avoid this expense, machines have been developed with which a workpiece can be finished completely. This, however, necessitates the use of different processing units, such as turretheads, milling units, and grinding units which cannot be attached to one machine at the same time without colliding with each other. For this reason the machining unit in question has been designed so that it is interchangeable which, in case of heavy machinery, is not always economically justifiable because of the long retooling and transportation time required.
The invention is based on the task of providing a lathe of the above-mentioned type which in addition to the turning operation can carry out other working operations with equal efficiency, such as boring, deep drilling, milling, turning/milling, grinding, honing, and sinking so that a complete processing of basic cylinder shapes is possible without resulting in long retooling and transportation times.
The task thus defined is solved according to the invention by the fact that the tool post has a processing turret which can move around a vertical axis as well as be secured at various angles, and by the fact that the processing turret is equipped with a turnable spindle unit to hold the tools and that it has at least one holding fixture for temporary attachment of tools or machining units.
Because the tool post can revolve around a vertical axis, an optinal tool placed on the spindle unit, such as, for instance, a milling tool or another tool placed in the tool holding fixture can be used in the working.
The processing turret is rotatable around its axis by (motor) power, and the rotation is controlled digitally so that the desired angle of the processing turret--and thereby the operating position of the tool to be inserted--can be programmed. The processing turret can, of course, also be rotatable by manual means around its axis.
It is preferable that the spindle unit and the tool holding fixture are positioned at opposite sides of the processing turret so that, in general, the turret can be rotated in steps of 90 or 180 degrees in order to place the desired tool in question in its working position.
The processing turret can, however, be secured at any chosen angle; this can be accomplished in a simple manner by, for instance, conventional gear rings.
In the construction according to the invention the spindle unit is attached in such a manner that it can be adjusted in the height. The vertical adjustment is digitally controlled so that a higher degree of freedom in the movement of the tools powered by the spindle unit is ensured. If necessary, this also makes it possible to get the spindle out of the way when it is not needed for shifting to a plane differing from the main axis of the machine 39 for processing purposes.
It is an advantage if the spindle unit is equipped at both ends with a tool holding fixture since it is then possible to insert a tool, e.g. a milling tool, in both ends in such a manner that one or the other tool can be placed in the operating position by turning is 180 degrees which means that the end planes of the workpiece can be approached from both sides.
When the spindle of the spindle unit has a independent, digitally controlled drive, the latter can be used instead of the driving arrangement for the workpiece holding fixture. In this instance it is preferable
REFERENCES:
patent: Re31288 (1983-06-01), Matsvzaki
patent: Re31304 (1983-07-01), Tsukiji
patent: 3867756 (1975-02-01), Koch et al.
patent: 3925877 (1975-12-01), Junike et al.
patent: 4414724 (1983-11-01), Garnett
Werkstatt and Betrieb, vol. III, No. 8, Aug. 1978, pp. 501-504, W. Kalmbach.
Simon Hans-Dieter
Strate Hans
Briggs William R.
H. Wohlenberg KG GmbH & Co.
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