Friday, December 24, 2021

Thread Manufacturing :

 

Bansilal Ramnath Agarwal Charitable Trust's

Vishwakarma Institute of Technology

(An Autonomous Institute affiliated to Savitribai Phule Pune University)

Vishwakarma Institute of Technology, 666, Upper Indiranagar, Bibwewadi , Pune, Maharashtra, INDIA - 411 037.

Contact No. +91 - 20 - 2428 3001

Types of Threads:


Fig. types of Threads 

1)   Left Hand Thread:

Left hand threads are those threads which are inclined towards the left hand. These are the ones which are fixed in an anticlockwise movement.

2)   Right Hand Thread:

Right hand threads are those threads which are inclined towards the right-hand side. These are fixed in a clockwise movement.

3)   Taper Thread:

Taper threads are the threads which are found having a cut around the taper surface and are thus named as taper thread. These are the threads which can be either right-handed or left-handed.

4)   Square Threads:

Square threads are those threads which are found having very powerful roots in a thread. It is named in such a way as it is found making the square thread and these are the threads which are used for lifting heavy loads, transfer of power, exerting pressure, and screw jack and vice spindle instruments.

5)   Acme Thread:

Acme threads are those threads whose shape is in taper, like the flat from bottom and thin from the top. These threads are found having slanting ends and therefore are easier to fix or unscrew the split nut on it but do not have a backlash in it.  Acme threads are made up at an angle of 29°.

6)   Buttress Thread:

Buttress threads are referred to as the screw threads which have a triangular section but also have one face at the right angle of the axis of the screw and the second face only being sloped. These are the threads which are found having more pulling power as compared to the square thread. 

Taps and dies-

A tap cuts or forms a thread on the inside surface of a hole, creating a female surface that functions like a nut.  

Types of Taps:

There are 3 main types of taps to be familiar with: Taper, Plug, and Bottoming tap.

1)   Taper Tap:

The taper tap can be identified by the visible tapering of the cutting edges. This provides a very gradual and less aggressive cutting action. The distinct feature of a taper tap is the 8 to 10 threads that taper from the tip to the full cutting force diameter. A taper tap is most often used as a starter tap for difficult blind holes. 

2)Plug Tap:

A plug tap has a less pronounced taper to the cutting edges. This gives the plug tap a gradual cutting action that is less aggressive than that of the bottoming tap but more aggressive than a taper tap. Typically, the plug tap will have 3 to 5 tapered threads before the full cutting diameter is engaged. 

3)Bottoming Tap:

The third style is a bottoming tap. Bottoming taps have 1 to 2 tapered cutting edges before the full cutting force is engaged. Though this tap is extremely hard to start threads with, it is capable of cutting threads all of the way to the bottom of a blind hole. Bottoming taps are best used after a taper or plug tap has been used to cut the initial thread.

Dies:

Threading dies are used to form or cut a male thread on the outside of rods or bars. Threading dies provide precision in cutting and extend the life of a die by reducing wear.

Threading dies are commonly used in industrial metalworking. Threading dies are used for repairing threads in stripped holes or bolts. Rolled threading dies have an increased advantage of strength, longer life, and reduced material cost.

Thread cutting:


Fig. Threading machine with single point cutting tool

Thread cutting is a process for creating a thread. It's used for the production of threads on the outer surface of a cylinder or on the inner surface of a bore.  In external thread cutting, the piece can either be held in a chuck or mounted between two centers and for internal thread cutting, the piece is held in a chuck. The tool moves across the piece linearly, taking chips away from the workpiece with each pass. Usually, 5 to 7 light cuts create the correct depth of the thread.

 Tools used for thread cutting are the thread cutting die, the screw tab or for serial production a process called cold or hot forming.

The metric thread is the most widely used standardized thread geometry. The naming of metric threads uses an M which describes a nominal thread.

Thread milling


Fig. Internal thread milling

                                                                                                         Source Mold Making Technology

Thread milling is one of the methods for producing threads. In thread milling a rotating milling cutter enters in the hole which creates threads. It is a very efficient method for making large production of threads, as we can make different sizes of thread with only one tool, if the whole is bigger than the tool, the tool will move around the circumference of the hole to make threads. We can make left hand as well as right hand thread with same tool. This method takes less time for creating threads. It requires less cutting force and it the tool get crashed it will not get stuck. Thread milling has a upper hand on tapping, is that tapping only starts making a complete thread profile on the third thread, whereas thread milling will produce a complete thread profile from the top to the bottom. it has become the usual way for making threads, and today inner and outer threads are usually milled even on work where they would formerly have been cut with taps, die heads, or single-pointing.

Thrilling

Fig. Thrilling operation and thrilling tool

                                                                                    Source: WhizCut in the US ,BGF Thrillers

As the name implies, thrilling is a process of threading and drilling the internal threads using a special cutting tool on a CNC mill. To accomplish this process tools are designed such that the tip of the tool is shaped like a drill or center-cutting end mill; while the body has a thread-shaped form with a countersink cutter form near the shank. In this process firstly drilling and then threading operation is performed. This tool does all operations in one compact cycle like drilling, chamfering, and threading a hole. This process eliminates tool, tool holder and tool change which becomes advantageous as it saves cost as well as time. The disadvantage in this process is that it is limited to hole depth no greater than three times the diameter of the tool.  

Helical Broaching (Punch Tap)

Fig. Helical Broaching 
Source: Today's Motor Vehicles

The helical broaching was developed within the 2010s that shortens the toolpath of tapping. To an off-the-cuff observer (without slow motion), it's rather almost like traditional tapping but with faster movement into and out of the opening. It uses a selected tool geometry and toolpath to position rapidly, broach the thread during a single half-turn, then retract rapidly, shortening the cycle time and consuming less energy. It reduces the value of threading for any holes which will safely allow the 2 small fast-helix grooves that it leaves behind alongside the thread, which might be true in many applications. 

Thread grinding

Fig. Thread Grinding

                                                                                                                              Source: SAK Abrasives

Thread grinding is done to produce threads on hard materials. This technique uses a grinding wheel to manufacture the threads. This not only produces threads on harder materials, but also used to give an accurate shape to already manufactured threads by other various manufacturing techniques which are discussed above. There are basically three types of thread grinding -

  1. Center type grinding with axial feed
  2. Center type infeed thread grinding
  3. Centerless thread grinding

We have seen thread cutting using a single point cutting tool. Similarly, the first method i.e. center type grinding with axial feed works. But, in the single point cutting tool method, a tool is used. Here, a grinding wheel is used.  It is the most common method used for thread grinding. In the second type, i.e. center type infeed thread grinding, the grinding wheel used is with multiple ribs which is longer than the length of the threads. Grinding wheel is fed to the blank and the blank is rotated by 1.5 revolutions. Then, the centerless thread grinding performs the operation to manufacture the set screw. 

Threading with EDM

Fig. Schematic diagram of EDM threading 
                                                                                                          Source: Manufacturing Guide

Sometimes it is difficult to manufacture thread on the harder material such as tool steel or carbides with the above-mentioned manufacturing process. Hence a new non-conventional machining process is used to manufacture the threads. EDM stands for Electrical Discharge Machining where material is removed rapidly by sparking between two electrodes. One electrode is considered as a tool and the other electrode is a workpiece. In this case, it is thread blank. There is a small gap between the tool and workpiece which is generally filled up by dielectric fluid in the container.

                             As the voltage between the two electrodes increases, the intensity of the electric field between the gap also increases as it is directly proportional. This causes dielectric breakdown and produces an arc. This arc causes material removal from the workpiece. While removing the material, the workpiece is rotated in a fixed axis in the direction as we require the thread pattern. Generally, threading with EDM is used for internal threading of the component. The main advantage of using this type of machining process is that operators can easily produce threads on very complex components. As well as, the operating cost of the machine is very much low as compared to other machining processes.  Thread manufacturing is noiseless operation in this type of process. While the limitations are installation cost is high and the operator required is skillful.


TY_ME_D_Batch 2_Group 5

40 - Tanvi Shinde

44 - Shubam Pandoh

48 - Rutuja Solankar

50 - Pushkar Sonawane

52 - Bhushan Suda

Guided by : Prof. A. R. Mujumdar 

 





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