Industry Type:
agriculture | automotive
| chemical | construction
| electrical |
food processing | mining
material handling | pharmaceutical
| plastics | process
| pulp and paper | oil
and gas | woodworking
 |
 |
 |
 |
Menu services
- - |
|
 |
 |
 |
A History of Industrial Machine Tools -3
Machine
Tools came about as a solution to the inefficient steam engine.
More than any other development at the time, the steam engine was responsible
for creating a need for machines that could make other machines. Not just
any machine, but a machine capable of making precise and accurate metal
parts, i.e., pistons and cylinders. The cylinder and piston assembly had
to be precise in interior size so that steam could not leak between cylinder
and piston. From 
1775
to 1830, the Industrial Revolution was in full flight and revolved around
three major inventors: 1. John Wilkinson, who invented the precision
horizontal boring machine in 1775. 2. Henry Maudslay, who
invented the first engine lathe and developed an improved micrometer
in 1797. Joseph Whitworth, who invented a measuring instrument
accurate to a millionth of an inch and suggested the standardization of
screw threads in 1830. As these machines became more and more capable
of creating metal parts that were stronger and extremely precise in size,
it soon became possible to create engines that could handle the greater
forces of energy created by other sources of energy such as gasoline.
It also gave rise to the idea of interchangeable parts which in turn made
for the invention of other machines and tools that were more efficient
and productive than any hand tool.
Together these three figures transformed metalworking into a sophisticated practice of working with metals to create parts or structures. Also referred to as the machining process, these pioneer machinists demonstrated great skill and a vast experience of using many different types of tools including the lathe, all sorts of measuring devices, forging and casting tools, drills, the milling and boring machines. Most machining operations can be divided into those that remove metal from a workpiece, and those that form metal in a workpiece. In a typical maching operation, the unfinished workpiece will have some parts removed or scraped away in order to create a finished product. For example, a lathe is a machine tool that rotates a metal workpiece so that a cutting tool can peel metal off, creating a smooth, round surface. A drill or punch press can be used to remove metal in the shape of a hole. Other tools that may be used for various types of metal shaping and removal are milling machines, saws, and grinding tools.
During the 19th century, such standard machine tools as lathes, shapers, planers, grinders, and saws and milling, drilling, and boring machines reached a fairly high degree of precision, and their use became widespread in the industrializing nations. In 1888 the work of Nikola Tesla was taken by George Westinghouse and used to build generators for supplying electricity. This set the stage for machine tools powered by electricity. During the early part of the 20th century, machine tools became bigger, were powered by electricity and were built with great accuracy. After 1920 they became more specialized in their applications. From about 1930 to 1950 more powerful and rigid machine tools were built to utilize the greatly improved cutting materials that had become available. These specialized machine tools made it possible to manufacture standardized products economically, using relatively unskilled labor.
industrial tools home | contact | resources | sitemap | services