TABLE OF CONTENTS Metalworking machinery, tools, and measuring instruments have advanced considerably over the past 50 years. This chapter will show some of the new machines, tools, and instruments used throughout industry today that allow us to produce parts faster and more accurately than was possible in the past. The widespread use and implementation of microprocessors to control the actions of metal working machinery is evident in many of the photographs of modern equipment shown in this chapter. Photographs of other modern metalworking machinery appear throughout this Handbook.
When a metal part is fabricated, the part blank either can come from a near-net-shape manufacturing process or it can come in the form of bars, rods, plates, etc. Metal casting processes such as die casting, sand casting, and investment casting are the most common methods of producing a part blank that is close to its final shape (i.e., near net shape). Recent years also have seen a flood of new solid freeform fabrication (SFF) processes that are capable of directly producing near-net-shape functional metal parts without the need for molds, dies, etc. (see Chap. 10). In the case of near-net-shape processes, rough machining of large amounts of stock is not necessary. Instead, it is only necessary to finish machine those features that are critical to the function of a part.
Die casting. Small or medium-sized parts in nonferrous alloys such as magnesium, aluminum, and zinc are injected under pressure into a steel die. A machining...
