MATERIAL REMOVAL

Machining is the most universally used and the most important of all
manufacturing processes. Machining is a shape-producing process in which a
power-driven device causes material to be removed in chip form. Most machining
is done with equipment that supports both the workpiece and the cutting tool,
although, in some cases, portable equipment is used with unsupported workpieces.

Machinability-an Inherent Material Quality. The term machinability is used to

describe the relative ease with which any material may be machined. In one
respect, the term is like the word strength, for a material can have tensile strength,
shear strength, impact strength, fatigue strength, and compressive strength, all of
which are measured in different ways and any one of which does not necessarily
correlate with the others. That is, materials having equal tensile strengths do not
always have the same impact strength or fatigue strength. Three different
measurements-finish, power consumption, and tool life-may be considered in
machinability. Unlike measurements of strength properties, these do not always
give precise numerical information but are more often relative to some standard.

MACH INING TOOLS

Although there are many kinds of machines used in manufacturing and industry,
the term machine tools has been assigned to that group of equipment designed to
hold a cutting tool and a workpiece and establish a suitable set of motions between
them to remove material from the work in chip form. There are two relative
motions necessary for a controlled surface to be established. One is the cutting
motion, which supplies the power for chip forming. The other motion, or
sometimes motions, is the feed motion which presents new material to the cutting
edge and, in combination with the cutting motion, establishes the shape being cut.
There are five basic types of machine tools that differ in the combination of cut-
ting and feed motions they permit and in the usual kind of cutting tool for which
they are designed:
• Turning and boring.
• Drilling
• Milling.
• Straight-line machines.
• Grinding.
TORCH CUTTING
This separation process depends on keeping the material being cut above its
kindling temperature (800 °C [1500 °F] for pure iron) and supplying a stream of
oxygen to promote fast oxidation. High temperature in the cutting zone is aided by
the exothermic reaction of burning material.
Process Limited Mostly to Steels. Conditions for cutting are easily obtained with
pure iron and low alloy steels but are different with many other metals. Reduced
exothermic reaction and/ or increased thermal conductivity reduce the practicality
of using the process with cast iron, high-alloy steels including stainless, and most
nonferrous alloys.
Easily Mechanized. The Figure shows a mechanized setup for making a straight-
line cut in steel plate. Oxyacetylene flames are used to bring the steel to kindling
temperature; then pure oxygen is supplied through a central orifice in the torch tip
to burn a slot through the steel as the carriage moves along as its guide. The torch
path may also be established by numerical control or may be guided by a line
reader following the lines on a part drawing. The process is very versatile, may be
equipped with multiple torches for higher production, and produces accuracies
similar to those obtained by sawing. This sheet may be cut singly or stacked. Steel
over 1.5 m (5 ft) in thickness has been cut by this process, and scarfing-removal of
discontinuities in large casting and forgings-is commonly practiced by use of flame
cutting.
Arc Cutting Possible. Use of a steel wire electrode fed at high speed with gas
shielding and very high currents can also be used for cutting. The thickness of the
cut is much more limited than with the torch method, but materials difficult to cut
with flame can be parted with the arc.
GRINDING AND FINISHING
ABRASIVES
The previously mentioned tool materials are used for single-point tools or for
multi- point tools in which the cutting edges are carefully related to each other.
Another group of materials known as abrasives are used as wheels, sticks, or
stones, or in free form. In use, each abrasive grain, as it makes contact with the
work, cuts by exactly
the same mechanism as would a single point cutting tool. The random shape of the
grains together with their random orientation creates a multitude of cutting
conditions, which continually vary as tool wear occurs.
• Aluminum Oxide: A hard, strong grain, much larger than when used in a ceramic
cutting tool, used for the vast majority of grinding tools and applications.
• Silicon Oxide: Harder and sharper grains than aluminum oxide but more brittle
so they break easier in use. Used largely for tool grinding work and for grinding
low-strength materials.
• Diamond: The same material used for single-point tools but in this case crushed,
graded, and usually supported by a metal or ceramic backup material. Used to a
great extent for finish grinding some of the harder cutting tools.
• Boron Cubic Nitride: Approaches the hardness of diamond. It has had some
success as a lapping material and shows promise in wheels for tool grinding.

CHEMICAL MILLING
Chemical milling is a process for shaping metals by chemical dissolution without
electrical action. The name apparently originated from early applications where the
process was used in aircraft manufacture as an adjunct to milling. It was originally
used primarily to remove metal for weight reduction in areas of the workpiece that
were not accessible to milling cutters and where work contours made following the
surface with a cutter virtually impossible.
A Fully Chemical Process. The procedure is relatively simple. The areas of the
part where material is not to be removed are first masked with an oxidation
resistant coating. The masking may be done by first coating the workpiece entirely
and then removing the masking material from the desired areas by hand. When
production quantities warrant, silk screening may be used to apply the maskant
only where needed. The part is then immersed in a suitable etchant, which is
usually a strong acid or alkali. After the material has been etched to the required
depth, the work is removed and rinsed and the maskant removed.
Deep Straight Cuts Impossible. One of the most widely used applications is in
the manufacture of printed circuit boards for electronic assemblies. The process is
also competitive with conventional press blanking for short runs, especially in thin
material. One of the principal drawbacks is the undercutting that occurs along the
edges of the mask. Depth control is reasonably good, but straight vertical sides or
sharp corners cannot be achieved in the cavity produced.
ELECTRICAL DISCHARGE MACHINING (EDM)
Old Concept-New Development. The oldest, most successful, versatile, and widely
used of the new removal processes is electrical discharge machining, often
abbreviated EDM. As early as 1762, it was shown that metals were eroded by
spark discharges. Electric arcs have been used to some extent for cutting operations
in connection with welding, as well as practical application to the controlled
shaping of metals.
High Electrical Voltage Creates Ionized Current Path. EDM is based on the
observation that if an electrical potential exists between two conductive surfaces
and the surfaces are brought toward each other, a discharge will occur when the
gap is small enough that the potential can cause a breakdown in the medium
between the two surfaces. The temperature developed in the gap at the point of
discharge will be sufficient to ionize common liquids or gases so that they become
highly conductive. It is this ionized column that in the welding process permits a
welding arc to be maintained at considerable length, even over short periods of
zero voltage when alternating current is used. The condition of maintained
ionization is desirable for welding but cannot be tolerated for controlled shaping,
as the discharge would tend to remain at one place so long as a low conductive
path were present. Intermittent Direct Current Required. For EDM, the electrodes
are separated by a dielectric hydrocarbon oil.
A capacitor across the electrodes is charged by a direct-current power

ELECTROCHEMICAL MACHINING
Electrochemical machining (ECM) is somewhat newer than electrical discharge
machining (EDM) and offers great potential, particularly because of the greater
metal removal rates possible than with EDM.
A Special Reverse Plating System. In this process, as in EDM, both the tool and
the workpiece must be conductive, or at least the workpiece must be conductive
and the tool must have a conductive coating. With a suitable electrolyte between
them, the tool and workpiece form opposite electrodes of an electrolytic cell. The
work piece is connected to the positive terminal of a direct-current supply and the
tool to the negative terminal. The electrical circuit is identical to that used in metal
plating where metal is removed from the anode and deposited on the cathode.
There are two major differences. Different electrolytes are used so that the mate-
rial removed from the anode forms insoluble oxides or hydroxides. In
electroplating, the unagitated electrolyte permits metal ions to leave the anode only
as fast as they can diffuse into the electrolyte. The low rate of diffusion restricts the
maximum current flow that can be efficiently used. In ECM the electrolyte is made
to flow rapidly between the tool and the work by pressures up to 4 MPa (600 psi).
Currents up to 10 000 A are used on an area 30 cm2 (5 in.2) with a resulting metal
removal rate of about 16 cm 3 (1 in. 3) per minute. With adequate power supplies,
there appears to be no reason that the metal removal rate could not be even greater.
Work Energy Efficiency Low. The ECM is used for many of the same jobs that
could be done by EDM, including the making of irregularly shaped holes, forming
shaped cavities, and machining very hard or abrasive materials. Figure 9. 23 gives
an outline of the process. Compared to EDM, tolerances must be greater,
particularly in cavity shaping, and tool design is more critical to obtain proper flow
of the electrolyte between the tool and the work. In addition, as much as 119 kW
(160 hp) per 16 cm 3 (1 in. 3) per min of metal removal is required. This is about
4x that required by EDM, and more than l00 x that needed by most conventional
machining. On the other hand, tools do not wear, and the metal removal rate is
much greater than with EDM

ULTRASONIC MACHINING
A Mechanical Forming Process. The term ultrasonic machining is used to denote
an abrasive machining process used for cutting hard materials by projecting tiny
abrasive particles at the work surface at high velocities. Figure 9.24 shows the
details of the process. The abrasive is carried in a liquid flowing between the
shaped tool and the workpiece. The tool is made to oscillate along its axis at a
frequency of about 20 000 Hz.
Transducer Motion Amplified by Horn. The heart of the equipment is the
transducer that converts the high-frequency electrical power into mechanical
energy.
Most transducers are made with nickel laminations that are placed in an oscillating
magnetic field. Nickel has the property of magnetostriction and undergoes a
change in length when placed in a magnetic field. The amplitude of vibration of the
nickel is insufficient for practical use and must be amplified by attaching a suitable
horn to one end. The tool is then brazed, soldered, or mechanically fastened to the
end of the horn. The entire assembly must be mechanically tuned to resonate at the
frequency produced by the electronic amplifier. When so tuned, the amplitude of
the tool motion is from 0.05 to 0.1 mm (0.002 to 0.004 in.).

NUMERICAL CONTROL
Numerical control (N/C) systems are auxiliary machine control equipment that
may be applied to almost any kind of mechanical device that can function by
repeating a certain cycle of operation. This development is especially important in
the manufacturing field because it can be applied to most machine tool types and
some other machine equipment, such as punches, welding equipment, cutting
torches, and even drafting machines. Although N/C tapes are not entirely obsolete,
most N/C systems today are now either computer numerical control (CNC) or
direct numerical control (DNC) systems that are integrated into computer-aided
design (CAD) or computer aided programming.
Programming produces a computer file that is interpreted to extract the commands
needed to operate a particular machine via a post processor. The commands
are then loaded into the CNC machines for production. Since a component or part
might require the use of a number of different tools- for example, drills, lathes,
plasma cutters, electric discharge machines-modern machines often combine
multiple tools into a single cell or unit. In other installations, an external controller
oversees a sequence of machines, and human or robotic operators move the
component from machine to machine. In either case, the series of steps is highly
automated and produces a part or component that closely matches the original
CAD design. Greatest Value for Small to Medium Quantities. Although it would
be possible to retrofit a standard machine with N/C, the results obtained would be
very limited in scope, accuracy, and time saving so that only rarely would such
action be economically justified. Practically all N/C equipment is of special design
with an integrated control system such that the total cost may be many times that
of a conventional machine designed to perform similar product work. Because the
cost is high, it seems unusual that it is most economical to use N/C equipment on
relatively small quantity lots, only occasionally exceeding one or two hundred
pieces.
The major benefits received from N/C include reduction of the human element
in relation to the product with resulting improvement of consistency, requiring less
inspection. The reason for its value in small lot sizes is based on the short setup
time, particularly when the program has already been prepared for previous runs.
The equipment can therefore be shifted from one product part to another by
changing the programmed instructions and available tools with very little time loss.
Large quantity manufacturing of the continuous type can be done most
inexpensively with specialized, single-purpose machines, usually tied together with
mechanical handling equipment and, in many cases, including most of the
inspection equipment needed to maintain quality.