The turning center has a wider process range than the CNC lathe. The workpiece can be installed at one time, and almost all surfaces can be processed, such as inner and outer surfaces, end faces, grooves, spiral grooves on inner and outer circles and end faces, and axial holes on the non-rotating axis. , radial holes, etc.
Rotary tools such as drills, milling cutters, reamers, taps, etc. can be installed on the rotary tool holder of the turning center. They are driven by a separate motor, also known as self-driving tools. The machining of workpieces with self-driving tools on a turning center is divided into two situations. One is that the spindle is indexed and positioned and then fixed, and the workpiece is drilled, milled, and tapped; the other is that the spindle moves as a control axis. (C-axis), C-axis motion and X, Z-axis motion are combined into feed motion, that is, three-coordinate linkage. The milling cutter mills various shapes of grooves, bosses, planes, etc. on the surface of the workpiece. In many cases, the workpiece does not need to be drilled and milled separately in a special process, which eliminates the coaxiality error caused by the secondary installation and shortens the processing cycle.
The rotary tool holder of the turning center can usually hold 12 to 16 tools, which is not enough for unattended flexible machining. Therefore, some turning centers are equipped with tool magazines. The tool magazines are cylindrical or chain-shaped. The tool change and storage system is located on the side of the machine tool. The tool exchange between the tool magazine and the tool holder is carried out by a robot or a special organization.
The turning center adopts the chucks and jaws that can be quickly replaced. The replacement time of ordinary jaws takes 5 to 10 minutes, while the time for quick replacement of chucks and jaws can be controlled within 2 minutes. The chuck has 3 to 5 sets of quick-change jaws to adapt to workpieces of different diameters. If the workpiece diameter varies greatly, the chuck needs to be replaced. Sometimes, the workpiece is manually clamped with a chuck outside the machine tool, and the processed workpiece chuck is replaced with a chuck with a new workpiece. The workpiece-chuck system is often replaced by an automatic replacement device. Since the workpiece is loaded and unloaded outside the machine tool, the auxiliary time and the maneuvering time are overlapped, so there is almost no downtime.