Study on Capstan lathe and copying lathe

Semi-automatic lathes
In an ordinary center lathe, tool setting and changing are time-consuming processes that directly affect
production. Semi-automatic lathes were introduced to ease the problem associated with higher costs
that resulted from longer production times. Semi-automatic lathes involve more than one tool that can
be pre-set to perform a specific task. Hence, they are used in mass production. Manual tasks involve
loading and unloading of job, coolant on/off, selecting spindle for speed selection, and bringing the
tools to correct position. Capstan lathes are used to machine bar types of jobs using bar feeding
mechanism.
In these types of a lathe, the workpiece is held in collet or chucks, which are actuated hydraulically or
pneumatically. All the needed tools are held in the respective holes on the turret head. According to
the sequence of operation, the tool is moved with the help of a turret head.
Some significant characteristics of semi-automatics lathes are:
 Auxiliary motions and handling operations like bar feeding, speed change, tool change, etc.
are made quickly and consistently with lesser human involvement
 The operators need lesser skill and putting lesser effort and Attention
 Suitable for batch or small lot production
 Costlier than center lathes of the same capacity.

Figure.1- Schematic of capstan lathe

Construction:

Figure.2- Schematic on the constructional aspects

The major components include:
 Bed: The base part is made up of cast iron consisting of guideways. Cross slide and turret
head are mounted on the guideways.
 Cross slide: There are two types of cross slides- Reach over type and side hung type. The
reach-over type is mounted on the bed guideways between the headstock and the turret
supported by a lower rail. The cross slide has two tool posts; one is at the front end, having
four square turret faces for mounting the tools. Each tool can be indexed by 90 degrees. Stop
bars are provided for controlling each tool's motion, which can be indexed automatically
along with the square turret for the next machining operation. The tool post can move in
perpendicular and parallel directions concerning the spindle axis.
The Side hung type cross slide is entirely supported on the front way, which has no rear tool
post. This provides greater swing capacity to accommodate large diameter workpieces. This
type is mainly used in turret lathes.
 Head stock: it is similar to the headstock of an ordinary center lathe but larger and heavier in
construction to house the spindle and driving mechanism. There are four types of headstocks:
a. Step cone pulley driven
b. Direct electric motor driven
c. All geared headstock
d. Pre selective headstock
 Turret head: A turret head is a hexagonal block having 6 faces with a bore for mounting six
or more than 6 tools at a time. The four threaded holes on these faces are used to
accommodate the tool holders. The turret head is mounted on the ram fitted with turret slides
longitudinally on a saddle. The ram is actuated either by hand or power. A preset or
adjustable stop controls the forward movement of the ram. To index the cutting tool, the ram
or turret is returned to its starting position for tripping the stops. The tripped stops are locked
in place by locking nuts. Each tool is indexed through 60 degrees by the rotation of a circular
plate. The circular plate is indexed automatically along with the turret head. Bringing the
following tool into the cutting position is known as Geneva mechanism.
 Figure.3- Schematic of the turret head assembly on the lathe bed

 Saddle: The saddle accommodates the turret head, and it can be traversed on the lathe bed
using a handwheel, as depicted in figure 4.

Figure.4- Schematic of the saddle assembly

Advantages:
1. It can be used for mass production as the production rate is high.
2. Different ranges of speed can be used.
3. Multiple tools can be accommodated at the same time.
4. It has a high rigidity; hence it can withstand higher loads
 Copying lathe
Principle and constructional aspects:
There are two types of attachments to the lathe- Mechanical and hydraulic copying attachment.
Figures 5 and 6 depict the mechanical attachment of a copying lathe. The underlying principle is that
the tool traces the path of a template/replica that is to be machined on the raw material/job. i.e., the
final shape of the machined job will be the same as that of the template. It uses a tool post that
consists of a cutting tool and a form tool. The cutting tools machines on the actual raw material while
the form tool traces the template. Hence, the longitudinal and cross feed directions are controlled
based on the form tool's movement over the template.

Figure.5- Mechanical copying assembly

 Figure.6- Mechanical copying assembly with the tracing tool and template
Hydraulic drive is often preferably used in some machine tools for smooth motions without jerk and
noise, self-lubrication, flexible transmission system, and stepless variation in speed and feed despite
the limitations like larger space requirement, oil leakage, difficult maintenance, etc.
Figure.7 depicts the hydraulic attachment for the copying lathe. The crossfeed is controlled, under
fixed longitudinal feed, hydraulically. When the stylus moves in the transverse direction slightly (by
say Δx) due to slope or profile in the fixed template, the ports open, enabling the high-pressure fluid
enter in the lower chamber. Since the piston is fixed, the sliding cylinder holding the cutting tool will
start moving down. When the tool also retracts by Δx the ports get closed. This way the incremental
or discrete motion of the stylus is replicated by the tool tip resulting true copying of the profile from
the template to the job.

Figure.7- Hydraulic copying assembly