Milling Machine

A machine tool used for removing the undesirable material from a workpiece by feeding the workpiece past a rotating multipoint cutting tool called milling cutter. Principle of operation: Workpiece is clamped on the work table. Milling cutter is mounted on the arbor or spindle of milling machine. Milling cutter rotates at desired speed. Workpiece is fed against the rotating milling cutter in X,Y and Z directions. Milling cutter is made up of material harder than the workpiece.
Definition:-

Principle of operation

Features of milling

Interrupted cutting: A material is removed for only part of the rotation of the milling cutter. As a result a cutting edge gets time to cool before it removes material again. Thus milling is a cooler operation than turning operation.

Large material removal: Chip size is small but multiple cutting edges remove a large material in a single pass than turning. Variation in chip thickness: There is a cyclic variation in chip thickness from zero to maximum. This is harmful for surface finish and tool life.

Classification
Knee and column type: Horizontal, Vertical, Universal and Turret. These are general purpose milling machines with lot of flexibility. Production type: Simplex, Duplex, Triplex Suitable for large production of similar components, less flexibility. Plano millers: Suitable for Large size workpieces. Special purpose type: Suitable for gear profiling, spline shaft manufacturing e.g. keyway milling, spline shaft milling, etc.

Horizontal milling machine

Vertical milling machine

Components of milling machine

Base: lowermost part to support the machine Column: Vertical part fixed on the base. Knee: The elevating screw moves it up and down Saddle: Mounted on the knee, supports and provides cross feed to the worktable. Worktable: Movable table for clamping the workpiece. Over-arm: In horizontal milling machine to support the arbor. Spindle: Hollow shaft driven by motor to rotate milling cutter Arbor: In horizontal milling to hold and rotate milling cutter

Operations performed on milling machine

Plain milling: Up milling and down milling:- Machining is done by the teeth on the cylindrical surface of the cutter, Finished surface is parallel to the axis of the cutter

Operations performed on milling machine

Face milling: Machining is done by the teeth on the flat surface of the cutter, Finished surface is perpendicular to the axis of the cutter. Side milling: Similar to face milling Side and face milling: Machining is done by the teeth on the flat as well as cylindrical surface of the cutter, finished surfaces are perpendicular as well as parallel to the axis of the cutter.

Operations performed on milling machine

End milling: The machining is done by the cutter teeth on the end as well as periphery of the cutter. It is used for machining of complicated profiles. Profile milling: The cutter has outline same as that of the shape of the profile. It is used for gear teeth manufacturing. Gang milling: Two or more milling cutters are mounted on the arbor. Horizontal and vertical surfaces are machined simultaneously.

Operations performed on milling machine

Saw milling( Slitting): The thickness of cutter is small.(0.75 to 5 mm) It is used for cutting deep slots or for cutting off operations. Keyway milling: Keyways can be prepared by using side and face milling cutter on horizontal milling machine or end milling cutter on vertical milling machine.

Peripheral and face milling

Milling Cutters