Types of Shaper Machines & Their Classifications – A Comprehensive Guide

Due to great performance of a shaper machine, the establishment of different types in order to perform various operations with suitability. Shaper machine effectiveness on different operations depends on the machine type and their features.

Today we’ll be looking at the different types of shaping, their classifications and the operations performed on them.

Read: Everything you need to know about shaping machine

The various types of shaping machines:

Various types of shaping machines are classified into four such as motion type (driving mechanism), ram travel, table design, and the type of cutting stroke:

Types of shaper machine base on driving mechanism:

• Crank type e.g. quick return motion mechanism
• Geared shaper type
• Hydraulic type

Based on ram travel:

• Horizontal shaper
• Vertical shaper

Based on table design:

• Standard or plain shaper
• Universal shaper

Types of shaping machine based on the cutting stroke:

• Push and draw type of shaper machine

Their specifications: 

The following represent the specification of a shaping machine:

• The maximum length of stroke ram.
• The power input of the machine.
• Feed
• The drive type (crank, gear, or hydraulic type)
• Weight of the machine in ton.
• The cutting to return stroke ratio. Finally,
• The angular movement of the table.

Read: Understanding lathe machine

The operations performed on a shaping machine:

The following stated below are shaping machine operations:

Horizontal cutting:

The shaping machine operation is carryout on horizontal surfaces. It is done by moving the work mounted on the machine table at cross direction with the movement of ram. The clapper box will be set vertically or slightly inclined towards the uncut surface. This allows the tool to automatically lift during the backward stroke.

Vertical cutting:

In this operation, the vertical cut is carryout on the end of a workpiece, squaring up a block or machining a shoulder. The table is set to move vertically in order to feed the tool by rotating the down feed screw of the vertical slide.

Inclined cutting:

An angular cut is done at any angle other than a right angle to the horizontal or to the vertical plane. The workpiece is set on the table and the vertical slide of the tooth head is swiveled to the required angle. It is required either towards the left or right from the vertical position.

Irregular cutting:

In this shaping machine operation, a round nose tool is used. while making a shallow cut an apron may be vertically set but if the curve will be quite sharp, the apron will swivel towards the right or left away from the surface to be cut.

Read: Different types of Lathe machine operation

That’s all for this article, classification of the various types of shaping machine and operations that can be performed on them. I hope you find the post interesting, if so, kindly comment and share. Thanks!