Mill‑Turn Machining Centers: Dual Milling and Turning Solutions

What are Mill-turn Machining Centers?

The milling and turning machining center can perform both milling and turning operations, but in terms of its inherent design, it is similar to a turning mechanism.
 

Categorizations of Machining Centers

The classification of machining centers can be roughly divided into two main categories: vertical and horizontal, and there are other categories in the list of machining centers. The vertical machining center is a vertical arrangement of its structure, and the workpiece is processed by a cutting tool that moves up and down in the vertical direction.

Meanwhile, the horizontal machining center has horizontally arranged spindles, and the machining is conducted lying flat. With the vertical design, the weight of the workpiece will help it be firmly positioned on the fixture to make a heavier vertical cutting route without having to worry about route deviation.

In addition, with the help of a power turret, the cycle time is greatly reduced. The machining of the workpiece in the machining center is usually not circular, but other complex profiles, because the former can be processed in a more efficient manner by using a power turret lathe. A lathe is also commonly known as a turning center.

The Advantages of Mill-turn Machining Center

The classification of CNC turning and milling machines is different. There are two main types in this category. These are vertical turning and milling machines and horizontal turning and milling machines. For the vertical version, the workpiece is fixed vertically, such as by clamping force.

The installation direction of the cutting tool is the same, so the processing is performed vertically. CNC milling lathes and CNC turning centers can be vertical or horizontal, and their arrangement is based on processing requirements. If one wants to make the CNC turning centers vertical, the most important alignments are about the spindle and the chucks.

High-Speed CNC Turning Centers

In addition, the high-speed machining center is a highly developed machine that can handle many precision machining tasks at once. At first, this machining center was developed from the milling machine in the middle of the last century. Development of this specific type of machine tool has developed well in the industry.

Since then, the machine tool center has been widely used in various industries and made extensive efforts for the industry. Regarding the milling process, it is a machining process that uses a spinning tool to remove workpiece material by advancing the tool into one or more workpieces.

This processing method can be done in different directions. In addition to turning, milling also involves a variety of operations, ranging from a single tiny part to a heavy and large milling task. Similar to turning, milling is one of the most commonly used machining methods, providing precise tolerances and standards.

 

Mill-Turn Spindles

Regarding the speed of the spindle, it is a key parameter that determines the performance of the machining center. For high-speed models of mill-turn machining centers, RPM (revolutions per minute) standards are different, and there is no such universal range.

At the same time, manufacturers in Europe, Japan, and Taiwan have a consensus on RPM standards, while regional differences are still very large. Therefore, in the field of metal processing, turning and milling machines are also called CNC turning centers.

CNC turning centers are machine tools that have both turning and milling functions and can rotate the workpiece on a rotary axis to perform various machining operations during machining, such as cutting and turning assistance.

 

Powerful Cutting Assistance

Until now, all the above discussion about turning centers was ideally handled by the turret tool, which is applied to the workpiece and creates an object symmetrical to the spindle. The spindle is driven by the spindle and assisted by the active tool.

Since all tools of turning centers are prepared for the workpiece, the clamping mechanism of the workpiece is another key point for milling and turning. In this way, compared with the horizontal method, due to the effect of gravity, the rigidity and flexibility of the clamping mechanism of the vertical turning centers are greatly improved.

Manufacturers of vertical lathes usually turn their vertical turning centers into first-class manufacturing equipment for users in various industrial fields that pursue high precision, such as the automotive industry, aerospace sector, sports equipment application, and other fields with larger size workpieces.

 

Milling In The Past

CNC turning and milling machines are like other machining center models. This type of machining center comes from very common and highly productive machine tools that are used in heavy cutting tasks in the aerospace, automotive, and energy production industries.

In the model library, the turret type CNC turning and milling machine is a highly developed machine tool that can handle multiple milling tasks at once. Initially, the machine tool center evolved from milling machines in the 1960s.

The development of this particular type of machine tool has made good progress in the industry. Since then, the machine tool center has been widely used in various industries and for practical purposes.