Slant Bed CNC Lathe vs Flat Bed CNC Lathe

Flat Bed CNC Lathe

Heavy-duty turning is done mostly on flat bed CNC lathes, which are frequently utilized to work with complex geometries, short shafts, discs, and other objects. It can also machine a wide range of internal and external threads in either metric or imperial units. The rotary head can mill or drill the workpiece's circumferential and end face when it is positioned on the flat bed CNC lathe. The flat bed CNC lathe can drill, ream, extend, and roll in addition to turning the outer circle, slotting, and chamfering. It is stable and productive, and it has a great machining range.

Slant Bed CNC Lathe

Slant bed Live tooling, an automatic machine tool with higher precision, high speed, and high accuracy, is frequently included with CNC lathes. The slant bed lathe can be used to machine linear cylinders, slant cylinders, circular arcs, and many complex parts, including threads and grooves, although it is most suited for producing tiny and medium-sized parts in prototype or series production, such as those for automobiles and aircraft. The better chip removal performance is among the advantages that are widely known. Gravity and the movement of coolant flush chips produced during CNC turning or cutting to the chip bed. This function also minimizes unnecessary wear on the guides and other moving parts, extending the lifespan of the machine.

• Equipment Layout

The two guide rails of flat bed CNC lathe are parallel to the ground's surface. A slanting plane with angles of 30, 45, 60, and 75 degrees is formed when the plane of the ground and the two guide rails of the slant bed CNC lathe intersect. The bed of flat bed CNC lathe and the bed of slant bed CNC lathe are both square from the side of the machine. It goes without saying that a slant bed's x-direction travel is longer than a flat bed's with the same width of the guide rail. The advantage of the slant bed lathe is that more tool alignments may be set up as a result.

• Hard Turning Performance

The slant bed CNC lathe has a bigger cross-sectional area than the flat bed with the same work envelope, which means it has more mechanical resistance to bending and torsion. Since the workpiece's direction of gravity and the cutting force are essentially identical, the spindle runs more smoothly and turning vibration is less likely to occur. When it comes to flat bed CNC lathe, the cutting force produced by the tool and the workpiece is 90° with the workpiece's gravity, making vibration more likely to occur.

• Machine repeatability and accuracy

The linear guideway and high-precision ball screw help the CNC slant bed lathe be accurate. Despite the relatively little transmission gap between the screw and the nut, there is some space. The machining accuracy will be impacted by the reverse clearance that is produced when the screw moves in the opposite direction, which reduces positioning repeatability. Gravity directly influences the axial direction of the X ball screw, which in turn directly influences the arrangement of the slant bed CNC lathe. As a result, the reverse clearance of the transmission is all but eliminated. On the other hand, because the axial gravity has no effect on the x-directional screw of the flat bed CNC lathe, the clearance cannot be completely eliminated. This is the inherent advantage brought by the design of slant bed CNC lathes.

• Chip Removal

The slant bed CNC lathe benefits from gravity, making chip removal easy, and it also has a protection cover that prevents chips from building up on the screw and guideway. Chip removal on the flat bed frame demanded more work.

• Automatic solutions

The feature-rich slant bed CNC lathe may be outfitted with a variety of tool arrangements, including the option of side live tooling on the X-axis, due to its large work envelope. It opens up a lot of opportunities for automation solutions like the bar feeder, gantry loading device, or robotic arms because of the ease of chip removal.