CNC turning is a manufacturing process that involves holding bars of material in a chuck and rotating them while feeding a tool to the piece to remove material until the desired shape is achieved. As the desired shape is achieved through the removal of material, it is also known as subtraction machining.
All of the work can be completed from one side if the CNC turning center has only one turret, but some turning centers have a main spindle and sub-spindle for even faster operation. With this configuration, the main spindle partially machines the workpiece, which is then moved to the sub-spindle to complete the job on the other side of the part. The speed of CNC turning operations makes it an ideal process for large production runs with short lead times.
What Shapes Can CNC Turning Make?
Turning is a highly versatile machining process capable of making a wide range of profiles depending on the turning process used. The functionality of lathes and turning centers allows for straight turning, taper turning, external grooving, threading, knurling, boring, and drilling.
Generally, lathes are limited to simpler turning operations, like straight turning, external grooving, threading, and boring operations. The tool turret on turning centers allows the turning center to complete all the operations of a lathe as well as more complex operations, such as drilling off the axis of rotation.
CNC turning can produce a wide range of shapes with axial symmetry, like cones, cylinders, disks, or a combination of those shapes. Some turning centers are even capable of polygonal turning, using special rotating tools to create shapes like a hexagon along the axis of rotation.
Although the workpiece is generally the only object rotating, the cutting tool can move too! Tooling can move on 1, 2, or even up to 5 axes to produce precision shapes. Now, you can imagine all the shapes you can achieve using a block of metal, wood, or plastic.
CNC turning is a widespread manufacturing method, so it isn’t hard to spot some everyday objects we use that are manufactured using this process.
CNC turning is a cornerstone in the manufacturing industry. If your design is axially symmetric, this could be the right manufacturing process for you to create precision parts, either for mass production or in small batches.
Nevertheless, if you feel that your designed parts are too large, heavy, non-symmetrical, or have other complex geometries, you may want to consider another manufacturing process, such as CNC milling