An Overview of the Milling Machine, Its Processes, and Components

The process in which allows the creation of the variety of features on a part from cutting the unwanted material, such process is known as “Milling Process”. Milling is an important form of machining. Milling process requires tools like a milling machine, workpiece, cutter, and fixture. The workpiece is a pre-shaped material that joins to the fixture, attached to a platform on the milling machine. Along with this, there is a fixation of a cutter in the milling machine, the cutting tool has sharp teeth that rotate at high speed. The machine cuts away the material from the workpiece in the form of small chips by feeding the workpiece into the rotating cutter that allows the creation of desired shape.

As far as the construction of the machine is concerned, the parts of the milling machine are not axially symmetric; they have many features, such as slots, holes, pockets, and three-dimensional contours. Some parts can be completely fabricated by the help of milling process; as components of these parts are used in limited quantity, like prototypes, custom designer fasteners or brackets. One of the most common applications of milling is the fabrication of tooling for other processes. For example, milling the three-dimensional molds. The parts manufactured by using a different process applies to add or refines features of these parts by using milling as a secondary process. The milling process can offer high tolerance and surface finish. Therefore, for that reason milling is an ideal for adding precise features to a part whose basic shape has already been formed.

Components of Milling Machine

Milling machines can be available in several of sizes and designs. However, they have the same components that enable the work performed on three-dimensional that is about the tool. The components of the milling machine include the following sub-parts:

• The base is a simple platform that provides support to the machine, normally fixed on the ground surface. A column attached to the base connects to the other components.
• A table has “T” shaped slots along its surface. The milled workpiece is mounted onto the table surface.  The workpiece can be joined in a fixture called a vise. The vise has fixation into the T-slots, or they can be clamped directly into these slots.
• The saddle is a platform that provides support to the table and allows its longitudinal motion. The saddle is also able to move and provide the horizontal motion of the workpiece in the Y-direction by sliding along another platform.
• There is another platform that supports to saddle and table is called “Knee.”

All of the above-given components of milling machine can operate on both orientations either in vertical or horizontal which allows the creation of two distinct form of the milling machine. Horizontal milling machine sometimes called arbor milling because horizontal milling machine uses a cutter that is mounted on a horizontal shaft, which is called an arbor. On the other hand, a vertical milling machine orients the cutter vertically. It has cutter fixed inside a piece, which is called collet, and then it is attached to a spindle that is orients vertically. The spindle is located inside the milling head, which attaches to the column. On the vertical milling machine, all the milling operations performed to remove the material by using both the bottom and sides of the cutter.

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