Share what CNC turntables are and how they are used?

CNC rotary table is the key of automatic machining. A brief discussion of the development and terminology of CNC machining would be helpful from now on, before going into the nuts and bolts of CNC rotary tables. CNC is an acronym for computer digital control. It is the direct descendant of numerical control (NC) technology.

Definition of rotary table

As its name suggests, a turntable is a table that rotates very precisely in a concentric manner around its central axis. On high-precision, high-cost types of rotary workstations, accuracy may mean radial runout -- a perfectly neutral amount of deviation -- 0.00004 inches when rotating on the central axis and angular accuracy -- rotation Angle about the central axis -- 0.0002 inches. To suppress vibration, the main body of the rotary table is usually made of one of the "grey" iron grades. Rotary tables are usually hardened alloy steel, machined and rotary lapped.

The use of CNC rotary table

For automatic machining, the whole purpose of a CNC rotary table is to provide a fourth axis. In addition to the normal axes of X, Y and Z, the CNC rotary table adds a rotating axis, called the "W" axis, to improve machine accuracy and reduce costs. For example, making a stop sign shape using a CNC milling machine alone requires moving the cutting tool around the workpiece to cut the vertical and horizontal sides, and then cutting the angled side by moving the cutting tool at a 45 degree Angle. It's removing material. It takes eight processes. Each operation introduces a cumulative dimensional error of edges parallel to each other. Using a CNC rotary table for the same part means positioning the tool at X or Y once while rotating the part in 45-degree increments for each horizontal or vertical channel. Because it cuts only one side of the tool on X or Y, any mechanical tolerance errors, tool wear and normal tool deviations are reduced by half.