Most people have never heard of CNC turning services but CNC, which stands for Computer Numerical Control, is a process that is carried out by most precision manufacturing companies. Those who work in manufacturing most likely deal with it on a regular basis.
How CNC Works
During CNC turning services, a round or cylindrical material is held in a chuck, and a tool or cutter is fed to the piece as it rotates to remove material so as to create the desired shape. The cutter can be fed at a variety of angles and many tools shapes can be used.
The CNC lathes or turning centers have tooling mounted on a turret that is controlled by a computer. Live tooling is often used so that the rotation can be stopped, and additional features such as slots, drilled holes, and milled surfaces can be added.
CNC Shapes and Materials
There are many shapes that can be made from cnc turning services including a variety of plain, contour, taper, fillet and radius profiles as well as threaded surfaces. Many turned parts use a single axis of revolution in their production, but multiple axes can be used to allow for more flexibility. This method of machining can be combined with CNC milling and other processes to make shapes of a more diverse nature, such as parts for robots, toys and motorcycles, pulleys, knobs, flywheels, bushings and many others.
The materials used for making shapes with CNC machines are typically rigid ones and can include stainless steel, polycarbonate, aluminum, brass titanium, bronze, and steel.
CNC Applications
Precision machined parts using CNC are used in many critical applications, where failure is not an option. These can include injection mold products for the medical industry and subsystems for the space shuttle and jettison components for solid rocket boosters. In the aircraft industry, precision machined parts find their way into components for landing gear, components for the F-16 Falcon fighter, and components for the Harrier jet emergency landing gear deployment systems.
The Department of Defense also has many uses for precision machine parts, including antenna components for the United States Army, Hellfire missile components, and components for the launch safety pin release system of the Javelin missile. The oil drilling industry turns to CNC for its components for timing devices.
