Machining in the industrial context refers to the use of power driven machine tools to shape metal. Metals are cut using various advanced machines and hence the process is often referred to as metal cutting.
Machining has various categories such as grinding, milling, turning, and drilling. In addition advanced technology has been developed to cut away material using electricity, chemicals, lasers, and water.
For grinding, a grinding belt or wheel is used, which is chafed against the work piece to remove material, for which water is used to avert the grinding wheel from getting hot and creating sparks. Grinding is often used for cutting metal pieces that are too hard to be machined.
However for cutting work pieces into asymmetric shapes, a manual machine would be an ideal aid. The process of manual machining is called as milling, and is good for general machining. However the milling process is less accurate, and not preferred as much as the turning or grinding machining process. The milling machine resembles a drill press, and the cutter looks like a drill bit that goes downwards in the piece to be cut. There are various different kinds of milling machines, and all serve in setting the depth of the cut.
Turning is another machine cutting process. However, the turning machining has a very unusual process of cutting, which is done on a lathe. Wherein the lathe turns the piece around, as a blade cuts away the required portion of the material.
Similarly drilling is a very common process of machining, which is used for cutting. The drilling process involves use of a drill or a drill press that has a drill bit on it, to cut away the work piece. Drill bits are available in many sizes and shapes, which help in cutting intricate shapes.
Nontraditional methods are also used for machine cutting such as a water jet technique, which is mainly used to cut softer materials, or materials that have cracks. Similarly the electrochemical machining technique is used for precise cutting. More over the advances in the machining process has been very crucial in the growth and development of the manufacturing sector.
