Manual Machines: One Vendor's View

German owned Knuth Machine Tools USA, Lincolnshire, Ill., has been in business since 1923, with manufacturing plants in Germany, Turkey and China, offering chip-making and forming equipment in both manual and CNC formats.

Manual machine types include a broad spectrum such as mills, lathes, drills, and saws, says Angus Catterson, general manager. Among his small customers typical applications tend to involve short runs and simple part configuration. Catterson says his larger customers want manual machines for repair work in maintenance departments and for one-off specials in a production process. If only one or two parts are required, a machinist can turn one out much more quickly on a manual machine than could be done on a CNC. On production runs the CNC is faster, he adds. Sometimes manual equipment is teamed with CNC machines to perform the occasional secondary operation.

More design changes have occurred in the controls and electrics than the iron itself, adds Catterson. "For example, we have very accurate digital readouts on a minimum of three axes on every machine. Readouts speed the production of accurate parts," he explains. Computerized control of the spindle is available on some manual lathes to optimize surface finish by controlling the surface feet per minute at the cutting tool. No programming is involved, adds Catterson.