frontal lathe
A frontal lathe or face lathe is a type of lathe{{Cite web |title=Lathe Tool - It's Development from the Ancient times to Nowadays, Vasiliki Kamperidou and Ioannis (John) Barboutis, October 2013, Conference: International Scientific Conference "Wood is Good – User Oriented Material, Technology and Design"At: Zagreb, Croatia |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340793465}} with a horizontal headstock, and without a tailstock. They are suitable for workpieces with a very large diameter (in some cases over 3 meters), but with a relatively short length.{{Cite web |title=Micro industry, cnc turning, machining of industrial parts in Tehran |url=https://microsanaat.ir/en/posts/28955 |access-date=2024-12-12 |language=en}}
Advantages include their simple and inexpensive construction, good access around the workpiece, and a good overview of the work. Disadvantages include that it can be difficult to clamp the workpiece into place safely, and that the front bearing on the spindle is heavily loaded, which is less favourable for accuracy.
Description
There are several different designs of frontal lathes. In particular, a distinction is made between lathes where the bedway is parallel to the axis of the main spindle (similar to a universal lathe), and lathes where the bedway is perpendicular to the axis of the main spindle (similar to the letter T in a floor plan).
In industry, face lathes have evolved from the general purpose universal lathe to specialized applications. The face lathe is in some cases a precursor to modern CNC turret lathes,{{Cite web |title=EMISSA S.A. High precision mechanics |url=https://www.emissa.com/eng/fiche_mach.php?page=emiturn |access-date=2024-12-12}}{{cite journal|access-date=2024-12-12 |first=A. |last=Ghionea |periodical=Recentonline.ro |title=ARCHITECTURE OF THE CNC HORIZONTAL LATHES |url=https://www.academia.edu/18231061}} which are a type of lathe in which several tools are mounted on a rotating head.{{Cite web |title=karuselldreiebenk - Det Norske Akademis ordbok |url=https://naob.no/ordbok/karuselldreiebenk |access-date=2024-12-12}}
For watchmaking, face lathes have been used since the 18th century and are still common for prototyping.{{Cite web |title=FACE-LATHE |url=https://horopedia.org/face-lathe-3/ |access-date=2024-12-12 |language=en-GB}}
See also
- Vertical lathe, sometimes preferred due to safer mounting
- Automatic lathe
- Universal lathe