The first boring machine came out
Although the factory handicraft industry is relatively backward, it has trained and created many technicians, although they are not experts in manufacturing machines. , but they can make a variety of hand tools, such as knives, saws, needles, drills, cones, grinders, shafts, sleeves, gears, bed frames, etc. In fact, machines are assembled from these parts made.
Speaking of boring machines, we must first talk about Leonardo da Vinci. This legendary figure may have been the designer of the earliest boring machine used for metal processing. The boring machine he designed was powered by water or a foot pedal. The boring tool rotated close to the workpiece, and the workpiece was fixed on a moving table driven by a crane. In 1540, another painter painted a painting of "The Art of Pyrotechnics", which also had the same picture of a boring machine. The boring machine at that time was specially used for finishing hollow castings.
In the 17th century, due to military needs, the cannon manufacturing industry developed rapidly. How to manufacture cannon barrels became a major problem that people urgently needed to solve.
The world's first true boring machine was invented by Wilkinson in 1775. In fact, to be precise, Wilkinson's boring machine was a drilling machine capable of precision machining of cannons. It was a hollow cylindrical boring bar with both ends mounted on bearings.
Wilkinson was born in the United States in 1728. When he was 20 years old, he moved to Staffordshire and built Bilston's first ironmaking furnace. For this reason, Wilkinson was known as the "Master Blacksmith of Staffordshire". In 1775, 47-year-old Wilkinson worked hard in his father's factory and finally created a new machine that could drill cannon barrels with rare precision. Interestingly, after Wilkinson died in 1808, he was buried in a cast iron coffin designed by himself.
However, Wilkinson’s invention did not apply for patent protection, and people copied it and installed it. In 1802, Watt also talked about Wilkinson's invention in his book and copied it in his Soho iron factory. Later, Watt also used Wilkinson's magical machine when manufacturing cylinders and pistons for steam engines. It turns out that for the piston, you can measure the size outside and cut it at the same time, but for the cylinder it is not that simple and you have to use a boring machine. At that time, Watt used a water wheel to rotate the metal cylinder and push the centrally fixed tool forward to cut the inside of the cylinder. As a result, the error of the 75-inch diameter cylinder was less than the thickness of a coin. It's very advanced.
In the following decades, many improvements were made to Wilkinson's boring machine. In 1885, Hutton in the UK manufactured a table-lifting boring machine, which has become the prototype of modern boring machines.
The birth of the lathe
As early as the ancient Egyptian times, people had invented the technology of turning wood with a tool while rotating it around its central axis. At first, people used two standing timbers as supports to set up the wood to be turned, used the elasticity of the branches to roll the rope onto the wood, pulled the rope to turn the wood, and turned the wood with a tool.
This ancient method gradually evolved into winding a rope around a pulley two or three times. The rope was placed on an elastic rod bent into a bow shape. The bow was pushed and pulled back and forth to rotate the processed object for turning. It is the "bow lathe".
In the Middle Ages, someone designed a "pedal lathe" that used a pedal to rotate the crankshaft and drive the flywheel, which was then transmitted to the spindle to rotate. In the middle of the 16th century, a French designer named Besson designed a lathe for turning screws that used a screw bar to slide the tool. Unfortunately, this lathe was not widely used.
In the 18th century, someone else designed a lathe that used a pedal and connecting rod to rotate the crankshaft, which could store the rotational kinetic energy on the flywheel, and developed from directly rotating the workpiece to rotating the head of the bed. A headstock is a chuck used to hold workpieces.
In the story of the invention of the lathe, the most eye-catching one is an Englishman named Maudsley, because he invented the epoch-making tool holder lathe in 1797. This lathe has a precision Lead screws and interchangeable gears.
Maudsley was born in 1771. When he was 18 years old, he was the inventor Brammer's right-hand man. It is said that Bramer had always been doing farm work. When he was 16 years old, an accident caused his right ankle to be disabled, so he had to switch to woodworking with low mobility. His first invention was the flush toilet in 1778. Maudsley began to help Brammer design hydraulic presses and other machinery. He did not leave Brammer until he was 26 years old because Bramer rudely rejected Maurizio's proposal. A request for an increase in wages above 30 shillings per week.
The year Maudsley left Bramer, he made the first thread lathe, which was an all-metal lathe with a tool that could move along two parallel guide rails. seat and tailstock. The guide surface of the guide rail is triangular, and when the spindle rotates, it drives the screw to move the tool holder laterally. This is the main mechanism of modern lathes. With this lathe, precision metal screws of any pitch can be turned.
Three years later, Maudsley built a more complete lathe in his own workshop, with interchangeable gears. Soon, larger lathes also came out, making great contributions to the invention of steam engines and other machinery.
In the 19th century, due to the invention of high-speed tool steel and the application of electric motors, lathes were continuously improved and finally reached the modern level of high speed and high precision.
Planers and milling machines
In the process of invention, many things are often complementary and interlocking: in order to make a steam engine, a boring machine is needed; after the steam engine was invented, From the perspective of process requirements, gantry planers have begun to be called for again. It can be said that it was the invention of the steam engine that led to the design and development of "work machines" from boring machines and lathes to gantry planers. In fact, a planer is a "plane" used to plan metal.
Due to the need for flat surface processing of steam engine valve seats, many technicians began research in this area starting from the early 19th century, including Richard Robert, Richard Platt, and James Fox. and Joseph Clement, etc., who independently manufactured gantry planers within 25 years starting in 1814. This type of gantry planer fixes the workpiece on a reciprocating platform, and the planer cuts one side of the workpiece. However, this type of planer does not yet have a tool feeding device and is in the process of transforming from a "tool" to a "machine". By 1839, a British man named Bodmer finally designed a faucet planer with a knife feeding device.
Another Englishman, Nesmith, invented and manufactured a planer for processing small planes within 40 years from 1831. It can fix the processing object on the bed while the tool moves back and forth.
Since then, due to the improvement of tools and the emergence of electric motors, gantry planers have developed in the direction of high-speed cutting and high precision on the one hand, and in the direction of large-scale on the other hand.
In the 19th century, the British invented boring machines and planers to meet the needs of the industrial revolution such as steam engines, while Americans focused on the invention of milling machines in order to produce a large number of weapons. A milling machine is a machine with milling cutters of different shapes, which can cut workpieces with special shapes, such as spiral grooves, gear shapes, etc.
As early as 1664, someone used a rotating circular tool to create a machine for cutting. This can be regarded as the original milling machine. Of course, it was the American Whitney who truly established the status of milling machines in machine manufacturing.
In 1818, Whitney built the world's first ordinary milling machine. However, the patent for the milling machine was first "obtained" by Bodmer of England in 1839.
In 1862, Brown of the United States manufactured the world's earliest universal milling machine. This milling machine was an epoch-making initiative in that it was equipped with a universal indexing plate and a comprehensive milling cutter. The worktable of the universal milling machine can rotate at a certain angle in the horizontal direction and is equipped with accessories such as an end milling head.
At the same time, Brown also designed a form milling cutter that would not deform after grinding, and then manufactured a grinding machine for milling cutters, bringing the milling machine to its current level.
Grinder and drill press
Grinding is an ancient technology that has been known to mankind since ancient times. In the Paleolithic Age, this technology was used to grind stone tools. Later, with the use of metal utensils, the development of grinding technology was promoted. However, the design of grinding machines worthy of the name is still a modern thing. Even in the early 19th century, people still grinded by rotating natural grinding stones and letting them contact the workpiece.
In 1864, the United States built the world's first grinding machine, which was a device that installed a grinding wheel on the slide tool holder of a lathe and made it have automatic transmission. Twelve years later, Brown in the United States invented a universal grinder that was close to a modern grinder.
The demand for artificial grinding stones has also increased. How to develop a grinding stone that is more wear-resistant than natural grinding stone? In 1892, the American Acheson successfully trial-produced silicon carbide made of coke and sand. This is an artificial grindstone now called C abrasive. Two years later, A abrasive with alumina as the main component was trial-produced. was successful, and in this way, the grinder became more widely used.
Afterwards, due to further improvements in bearings and guide rails, grinding machines became more and more precise and developed in a professional direction. Internal grinding machines, surface grinding machines, roller grinding machines, gear grinding machines, and universal grinding machines appeared. etc.
Similar to grinding technology, drilling technology also has a long history. Archaeologists have now discovered that humans invented devices for drilling holes in 4000 BC. The ancients set up a beam on two pillars, hung a rotating awl downward from the beam, and then used a bowstring to wrap the awl to rotate, so that holes could be drilled in wood and stones. Soon, people also designed a hole-punching tool called a "window", which also used elastic bow strings to rotate the awl.
Around 1850, the German Martignoni first made a twist drill for metal drilling; in 1862, at the International Exposition held in London, England, the British Whitworth exhibited The drill press with a power-driven cast iron cabinet frame was invented, which became the prototype of the modern drill press.
After that, various drilling machines appeared one after another, including radial drilling machines, drilling machines equipped with automatic feed mechanisms, multi-axis drilling machines that can drill multiple holes at one time, etc. Due to improvements in tool materials and drill bits, as well as the use of electric motors, large, high-performance drilling machines were finally manufactured.
The evolving lathe
From the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, a single lathe gradually evolved into milling machines, planers, grinders, drilling machines, etc. These major machine tools have basically been finalized. This created conditions for precision machine tools and production mechanization and semi-automation in the early 20th century.
In the first 20 years of the 20th century, people mainly focused on milling machines, grinding machines and assembly lines. Due to the requirements of the production of automobiles, aircraft and their engines, there is an urgent need for precision, automatic milling machines and grinders when processing large quantities of parts with complex shapes, high precision and high finish. The advent of multi-helical edge milling cutters has basically solved the problem of vibration and low smoothness produced by single-edge milling cutters that prevented the development of milling machines, making milling machines an important equipment for processing complex parts.
Ford, known as the "Father of the Automobile" by the world, proposed that cars should be "light, strong, reliable and cheap." In order to achieve this goal, a high-efficiency grinder must be developed. To this end, the American Norton used emery and corundum in 1900 to make a large-diameter and wide grinding wheel, as well as a heavy-duty grinder with high rigidity and solidity. The development of grinding machines has brought machinery manufacturing technology into a new stage of precision.
In the 30 years after 1920, machinery manufacturing technology entered a semi-automatic period, and hydraulic and electrical components were gradually applied to machine tools and other machinery. In 1938, hydraulic systems and electromagnetic control not only promoted the invention of new milling machines, but also promoted their use in machine tools such as gantry planers. After the 1930s, the travel switch-solenoid valve system was almost used in the automatic control of various machine tools.
After World War II, due to the emergence of CNC and group control machine tools and automatic lines, the development of machine tools began to enter the automation period. After the invention of electronic computers, CNC machine tools use digital control principles to store processing procedures, requirements, and operation numbers and text codes for tool replacement as information, and control the machine tool according to the instructions issued by them to process according to established requirements. New machine tools.
The CNC machine tool plan was proposed to the U.S. Air Force by Parsons of the United States when he was developing a blade processing machine for checking the profile of aircraft propeller blades. With the participation and assistance of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, it was finally It was a success in 1949. In 1951, they officially produced the first prototype of a vacuum tube CNC machine tool, successfully solving the automation problem of complex parts processing in multiple varieties and small batches. In the future, on the one hand, the CNC principle expanded from milling machines to milling and boring machines, drilling machines and lathes; on the other hand, it transitioned from electron tubes to transistors and integrated circuits.
From 1970 to 1974, there were three technological breakthroughs due to the widespread use of small computers in machine tool control. The first time was a direct digital controller, which allowed a small electronic computer to control multiple machine tools at the same time, and "group control" appeared; the second time was computer-aided design, which used a light pen to design and modify the design and calculation programs; The third time is to feedback and automatically change the processing amount and cutting speed according to the actual processing conditions and unexpected changes. Machine tools with adaptive control systems have emerged.
In 1968, the British Maulins Machinery Company developed the first automatic line composed of CNC machine tools. Soon, the American General Electric Company proposed that "the prerequisite for factory automation is CNC and CNC in the part processing process." "Programmed control of the production process", so by the mid-1970s, automated workshops appeared and automated factories began to be built.
After more than 100 years of ups and downs, the machine tool family has become increasingly mature and has truly become the "working machine" in the field of machinery.
The development history of lathes
The development of lathes can be roughly divided into four stages, the prototype stage, the basic structure stage, the independent power stage and the numerical control stage. The following will focus on their development.
The exhibition process will be introduced.
The birth of the lathe was not invented, but evolved gradually. As early as four thousand years ago, it was recorded that someone used the simple principle of drawing a bow to complete the work of drilling. This is the earliest recorded tool. Even now, you can still find manual drilling machines driven by manpower. Later, lathes were derived and used for turning and drilling wood. The name of lathe in English is Lathe (Lath means wooden board). Therefore, after hundreds of years of evolution, the progress of lathes was very slow. The wooden bed was slow and had low torque. Apart from being used in woodworking, it was not suitable for metal cutting until before the industrial revolution. This period can be called the prototype period of the lathe
The Industrial Revolution that began in the 18th century symbolized the end of the agricultural society dominated by craftsmen, and was replaced by an industrial society that emphasized mass production. Due to various metal products It is widely used. In order to process metal parts, lathes have become key equipment. At the beginning of the 18th century, the bed of the lathe was already made of metal. Its structural strength became stronger and it was more suitable for metal cutting. However, due to its simple structure, it could only be used for turning. For screw processing, it was not until the 19th century that lathes were completely assembled from iron parts. Coupled with the introduction of transmission mechanisms such as screws, a lathe with basic functions was finally developed. However, since the power can only be driven by human power, animal power or water power, it still cannot meet the demand. It can only be regarded as the construction of the basic structure has just been completed.
Watt invented the steam engine, which allowed the lathe to generate power from steam to drive the lathe. At this time, the power of the lathe was concentrated in one place, and then distributed to various parts of the factory through the transmission of belts and gears. At the beginning of the 20th century, the power lathe (Engine Lathe) with an independent power source was finally developed (see Figure 3), which also brought the lathe to a new field.
During this period, thanks to Ford's mass production of automobiles, many automobile parts had to be processed with lathes. In order to ensure adequate supply of parts, suppliers had to purchase lathes in large quantities to meet their needs. Even today, the development of lathes is still affected by the boom and bust of the automobile industry. Around.
In the middle of the 20th century, computers were invented, and soon they were applied to machine tools. Numerical control lathes gradually replaced traditional lathes and became factory tools. Production efficiency doubled, and part processing accuracy was greatly improved. And with the Computer software and hardware are becoming more and more advanced and mature, and many technologies that were previously considered impossible to process have been overcome one by one. The ratio of CNC machine tools has become an important indicator of national modernization.
From a historical perspective, in addition to the industrial revolution in the 18th century and the rise of the automobile industry in the 20th century, another main factor was the advancement of cutting tools. The cutting tools used in the early days were made of carbon steel. , the cutting speed could only be limited to less than 20m/min, and the machining accuracy was poor. After that, the tool material was alloy steel. Still today's ceramic tools, the cutting speed has been increased to more than 1000m/min, so the lathe speed is getting higher and higher. The feed speed is getting faster and faster, and the machining accuracy has also increased significantly from 1mm a century ago to 0.001mm. In addition to the improvement of cutting tools and technology, the rapid progress is also due to the cooperation of numerical control.