Automatic lathe

This article is about mechanically automated lathes. For CNC lathes and their technological offshoots, see turning center.
Fay automatic lathe, 1921.[1]
Bullard Mult-Au-Matic, a vertical, multispindle automatic lathe, 1914.[2]

In metalworking and woodworking, an automatic lathe is a lathe with an automatically controlled cutting process. Automatic lathes were first developed in the 1870s and were mechanically controlled. From the advent of NC and CNC in the 1950s, the term automatic lathe has generally been used for only mechanically controlled lathes, although some manufacturers (e.g., DMG Mori and Tsugami) market Swiss-type CNC lathes as 'automatic'.[3]

CNC has not yet entirely displaced mechanically automated lathes, as although no longer in production, many mechanically automated lathes remain in service.[4]

  1. ^ ASME 1921.
  2. ^ Roe 1916, p. 276 ff.
  3. ^ Bralla, James (2007), Handbook of Manufacturing Processes, New York: Industrial Press, p. Page 91, heading "Swiss-type screw machines", ISBN 9780831191474.
  4. ^ Donohue, Barbara (November–December 2010), ""How it Works" series: Competing Successfully Using Older Equipment", Today's Machining World, 6 (9), archived from the original on 2011-02-17.