“Turning” defines the work that is traditionally done on a lathe. “Turning centers” is a term sometimes applied to machines with secondary spindles and/or rotating tools for milling and drilling. Another term, “turn/mill or multitasking” describes machines that can be thought of as being just as capable at milling and drilling as they are at turning. Lathes, turning centers and turn-mill machines can have horizontal or vertical spindles, with horizontal being most common. Machines with a vertical spindle are generally called a vertical turret lathe, or VTL. If the workpiece is held from above by the vertical spindle, then this type of turning machine is generally called an inverted vertical lathe.
Here’s a machine with the flexibility to provide consistent results on complex, high-value medical parts, working from bar to box with minimal human intervention.
PMTS 2019: The Mikron Multistar CX-24 rotary indexing machines are said to produce both simple and complex turned and milled parts in a single clamping.
