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. All machine tools have some means of constraining the workpiece and provide a guided movement of the parts of the machine. Thus the relative movement between the workpiece and the cutting tool (which is called the toolpath) is controlled or constrained by the machine to at least some extent, rather than being entirely "offhand" or "freehand".
The precise definition of the term machine tool varies among users, as detailed in the "Nomenclature and key concepts" section. It is safe to say that all machine tools are "machines that help people to make things", although not all factory machines are machine tools.
Today machine tools are typically powered other than by human muscle (e.g., electrically, hydraulically, or via line shaft), used to make manufactured parts (components) in various ways that include cutting or certain other kinds of deformation.
Read more about Machine Tool: Nomenclature and Key Concepts, Interrelated, History, Drive Power Sources, Automatic Control, Examples
Other articles related to "machine tool, machine tools, machine, machines, tools, tool":
... The Bullard Machine Tool Company was a large American machine tool–building firm ... boring mills and was largely responsible for the development of the modern form of that class of machine tools ... Bullard Sr is believed to have developed the first small boring machine designed to do the accurate work previously performed on the faceplate of a lathe ...
... Examples of machine tools are Broaching machine Drill press Gear shaper Hobbing machine Hone Lathe Screw machines Milling machine Shear (sheet metal) Shaper Saws Planer Stewart platform mills Grinding ... discharge machining Grinding (abrasive cutting) Multiple edge cutting tools Single edge cutting tools Other techniques are used to add desired material ... fabricate components by selective addition of material are called rapid prototyping machines ...
... The Cincinnati Milling Machine Company was an American machine tool builder headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio ... purpose of building and promoting innovative new machine tool designs, especially milling machines ... From the 1890s through the 1960s, the Cincinnati Milling Machine Company was one of the biggest builders of milling machines ...
... The automation of machine tool control began in the 19th century with cams that "played" a machine tool in the way that cams had long been playing musical boxes or ... of people such as Christopher Miner Spencer developed the turret lathe into the screw machine (1870s) ... developments had the potential for convergence with the automation of machine tool control starting in that century, but the convergence did not happen until many decades later ...
... Single-pass bore finishing is not usually done in a milling machine for several reasons ... Firstly, most milling machines have only one spindle, so changing the tool more than four to six times can increase cycle times significantly ... sufficient, which can lead to material build-up between diamonds, diminishing the tool's effectiveness ...
Famous quotes containing the words tool and/or machine:
“One of the great reasons for the popularity of strikes is that they give the suppressed self a sense of power. For once the human tool knows itself a man, able to stand up and speak a word or strike a blow.”
—Charles Horton Cooley (1864–1929)
“He is no more than the chief officer of the people, appointed by the laws, and circumscribed with definite powers, to assist in working the great machine of government erected for their use, and consequently subject to their superintendence.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)