What is Automatic Screw Machining
It is a machining process that uses the principle of turning the part (lathe) and advance cutting and forming tools of all sorts (drills, form tools, milling cutters, taps, dies etc.) to shape the part.

The process uses one, five, six or eight spindles to machine and form round, hex and square bars of raw material into cylindrical parts. The bars of raw material are held by collets in turning spindles and the cutting tools approach from both the sides and end of the bars to machine parts. On a six spindle machine, you have six tools on six cross slides and six tools on an end slide cutting simultaneously on six parts. The six spindles holding the work piece are located in a circular carrier that indexes sixty degrees each cycle thus advancing each part further towards completion. At the start of a cycle the tools advance in to the part cutting material away leaving the net shape at the end of the cycle. The parts are at six successive phases of completion the last being where the part is cutoff from the bar of raw material.

When should Automatic Screw Machining be considered:

• When the part is predominately round
• When a part is threaded both internally and externally
• When a part requires drilling or step boring
• The raw material is metal or plastic
• Machining tolerances are required
• Low to high volume usage
• Parts that don’t lend themselves to Cold Heading

• Low cost production
• Complex shapes
• Fast cycle, high volume process
• Multiple tools cutting or forming simultaneously within one machine cycle
• Multiple kinds of machining and forming processes happening simultaneously within one machine cycle.
• Large amounts of material removal or long machining cuts broken up in to several tools within one machine cycle thus cutting the time needed to make the part.
• Many raw materials can be used (Low and high carbon steels, alloy steel, cast steel, aluminum, brass, copper, bronze. Most of the exotic metals. Many of the plastics.)