Shapes cut from the solid—

material removal processes

there is another option available which may be used not only to produce
components from raw material, but also to improve dimensional accuracy and/or the surface
finish of items that have already been formed by one or more of the other processes mentioned
above. This is called machining.
Machining is the controlled cutting away of unwanted material so that what is left is an
item having the required geometry and surface finish. This many seem both simple and obvious,
but it is one of the most complex and demanding areas of manufacturing and supports a
multibillion pound industry.

8.1 Generating, forming and copying shapes

To cut material some form of relative motion is required between the cutting tool and the
surface to be cut (the workpiece). This is the case irrespective of the type of cutting tool used
or the shape required.
SHAPES CUT FROM THE SOLID—MATERIAL REMOVAL PROCESSES

There is generally considered to be only three basic ways of producing a shape on a

workpiece—by generation, forming or copying.

8.1.1 Shape generation

The most common and flexible method of creating a shape is by pure generation. The word
pure is used to indicate that the profile produced results solely from the relative motion between
cutter and workpiece, and is in no way determined by the shape of the cutting tool used.
The commonest forms of motion are circular and linear which, in isolation or in
combination, are capable of generating a vast range of profiles. However, the bulk of generated
shapes comprise either cylindrical or flat surfaces (Fig. 8.1a-c).
In the case of cylindrical machining (Fig. 8.1a), called turning, the new cylinder of reduced
diameter is generated by traversing the cutting tool slowly along a line parallel to the axis of
rotation of the workpiece.

Figure 8.1 (a) Cylindrical surface generation (by turning on a lathe), (b) Flat surface generation (by shaping and planing),
(c) Flat surface generation (by face and peripheral milling).

Exercise What would be produced if either deliberately or accidentally a lathe cutting tool was traversed
at an angle to the workpiece’s axis of rotation? What type of surface do you think would be generated if the
tool was traversed across the end of the job at right angles to its axis of rotation?
 GENERATING, FORMING AND COPYING SHAPES

Exercise What would be produced if a vee-shaped lathe tool’s feed rate (axial movement/rev of workpiece)
was much coarser than for plain turning? Assume that the depth of cut is not excessive? Hint: Remove the
cap of a screw-top bottle and examine its neck!

The flat surface illustrated in Figure 8.1b is produced as follows. The cutting tool cuts in a
straight line on its forward stroke and then returns to its starting position; before the next
forward stroke commences, the tool is moved (fed) a small increment in the direction of the
material still to be removed. This is called planing. If each incremental step is small enough
a smooth surface will be generated; if each step is too great a flat but grooved surface will
result.
Another method of creating a flat surface is by traversing a rotating (multitooth) cutter
across the workpiece (Fig. 8.1c). Depending upon the form of cutter used, this is called either
face or peripheral milling (§8.2.3).
It should be remembered that the geometry of the tools used in the examples of surface
generation illustrated in Figure 8.1 have no influence on the shapes produced; only the relative
motion between tool and workpiece determines the profile.

8.1.2 Forming
Unlike generation, in this case the shape produced is determined entirely by the profile of the
cutting tool, which as a consequence is referred to as a form tool. Figure 8.2 illustrates how a
form tool for turning is used to create a cylindrical shape that is a mirror image of its own
profile. This is achieved by slowly feeding the form tool into the workpiece normal to its axis
of rotation until the full form is produced.
A significant problem with forming is that if the perimeter of the cutting edge of the form
tool is very long its feed rate must be slow. Even then there is still a risk of tool chatter
(vibration), resulting in poor surface finish. Form tools are also used in slab milling, but unless
the profile is simple the problem of chatter referred to above can be even more acute.
Furthermore, form tools can be expensive to make and difficult to resharpen without damaging
their profile accuracy.

8.1.3 Copying
Until the advent of computer-controlled machine tools (Ch. 9), profile copying was a popular
method of repeatedly reproducing complex shapes. Its use is now declining, but for completeness
the basic principles are briefly described here.
Copying involves tracing along the edge profile of either a sheet metal template (two-
dimensional pattern) of the required shape or the surface of a carefully made prototype with a
stylus. The resulting two-dimensional movement imparted to the stylus is then transferred
either electronically or hydraulically to the cutting tool, causing it to mimic precisely the motion
of the stylus.
When coupled with movement of the workpiece either rotationally (when turning circular
shapes) or linearly (when copy planing longitudinal surfaces), the required three-dimensional
profile is created (Fig. 8.3). As with pure generation, the profile of the cutting tool has no
influence on the shape produced.
SHAPES CUT FROM THE SOLID—MATERIAL REMOVAL PROCESSES

Figure 8.2 Profile

turning with a form tool.

Figure 8.3 (a) Copy turning.

(b) Copy planing. (Courtesy of Machine
Tool Attachments, Derby.)
 GENERATING, FORMING AND COPYING SHAPES

8.1.4 Production of more complex shapes

In describing the principles of profile generation, forming and copying, a range of shapes were
considered, varying from simple flat and cylindrical ones to slightly more complex three-
dimensional examples. However, within the limits of practicality, the complexity of shapes
that can be made is limited only by the ingenuity of the production engineer.
Two shapes that fall into this more complex category and which are of vital importance in
engineering are the involute and the spiral, the former being the basic profile found on gear
teeth and the latter being the basis of all screw threads. While every method of gear and thread
manufacture involves either copying, forming or generation in one way or another, their detailed
description is beyond the scope of this book, but will be found described in both larger texts
(Kalpakjian 1984, DeGarmo et al. 1988) and in works dealing specifically with these topics
(e.g. David Brown Special Products undated).
Broaches are a complex type of form tool that are frequently used to transform circular
holes into more complex shapes (Fig. 8.4).

Figure 8.4 (a) Spline and round

broaches, (b) Square and key way
broaches. (Courtesy of Redco
Tooling Ltd, Redditch.)
SHAPES CUT FROM THE SOLID—MATERIAL REMOVAL PROCESSES

In principle, a broach consists of a series of cutting edges whose first row of teeth fit
into a premade circular hole, with the subsequent rows getting progressively larger and
changing form over the broach’s full length until the last row of teeth produces the final
shape required. Thus, as the broach is pulled slowly through the original circular hole,
each tooth removes a small amount of material such that, when the final row of teeth has
passed through the hole in the component, the original hole will have been transformed
progressively into the desired shape. Square, hexagonal, key way and spline (precision
parallel groove) shapes are the most commonly broached forms, although the fir-tree
shaped roots of some turbine blades are also machined by surface, rather than circular,
broaching.