What 's the difference between Vertical Machining Center and Horizontal Machining Center?

There are two machining center forms, the horizontal and vertical. This refers to the main spindles orientation. Both the horizontal and vertical machining centers come in small, bench-mounted devices to a room-sized machine.

Horizontal Machining Center

Horizontal Machining Center refers to a machining center with a horizontal spindle and usually a rotary table with automatic indexing. It usually has 3-5 motion coordinates. It is common to add one rotation coordinate to three linear motion coordinates. It is most suitable for adding box type parts. Compared with the vertical machining center, the horizontal machining center is easy to discharge chips, which is advantageous to machining, but the structure is complex and the price is higher.

Horizontal machining centers have x – y table with cutter mounted on a horizontal arbor across the table. Most horizontal machining centers highlight a =15/-15 degree rotary table allowing one to mill at shallow angles. Horizontal machining centers are often used to mill grooves and slots. It may also be used to shape flat surfaces.

Vertical Machining Centers 

Vertical machining centers have its spindle axis vertically oriented. Its milling cutters are held in the spindle and it rotates on its axis. Generally, the spindle could be extended to allow plunge cuts and drilling, although the table could also be lowered or raised. The vertical machining centers have two subcategories. These categories are the bedmill and the turret mill.

Vertical machining center refers to a machining center with a vertical spindle and a rectangular worktable with no indexing rotation. It is suitable for machining plates, sleeves and plates. It generally has three straight-line coordinate axes and can be installed with a rotary table rotating along a horizontal axis on the worktable. It is used for machining spiral parts.

Vertical machining center is easy to install, easy to operate, easy to observe machining conditions, easy to debug procedures, widely used. However, due to the limitation of column height and tool changer, it is impossible to process too high parts. When machining cavity or concave surface, the chip is not easy to discharge. When it is serious, the tool will be damaged, the machined surface will be destroyed and the smooth processing will be affected.

Although they may be similar since both are machining centers, vertical and horizontal machining centers serve different purposes. Horizontal machining centers were first to appear to put milling tables under lathe-like headstocks. However, through the desire to change the angle of the horizontal machining centers, accessories such as add-on heads were created to convert the horizontal to vertical machining centers.

Horizontal machining centers work best with heavy work piece that needs machining on multiple sides. Die sinking on the other hand is best with vertical machining centers.

Sections of this article have been taken from www.buyusedmachinery.org / en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numerical_control