The history of CNC Lathes goes back a long way. Traditional lathes have only one X-axis and one Z-axis. CNC lathes can perform turning, grooving, threading, drilling and broaching processes. It was very rare before 1990 for these lathe machines to have hydraulic steady rests or tailstocks to support the longer parts.
There were generally several options available to create CNC programs on a lathe without CAM software, for instance, conversational programming and macro programming. Boxway slides were used on these lathes, allowing them to remove material to greater depths. The majority of these machines consisted of just one spindle and one turret, as opposed to two or more.
Today’s 4 axis lathes are capable of doing all the features offered by 2 axis machines, in addition to offering multiple spindles, turrets, and hydraulic steady rests. In addition to milling, polygon cutting, keyways, gear or spline cutting, and parts can be synchronized with the sub spindle to maintain the orientation of keyways or milling features, these lathes can handle a great deal more. It is possible to move parts from spindles to spindles to machine different features.
As a result of these technological advances, these multi-axis lathe machines have become extremely versatile. The machines are able to deliver a lot of work in a short amount of time with the proper hardware and software options. These machines are best utilized with cam software. The machines can be purchased or equipped with CMM probes to measure the parts as they are produced More info
