Metalworking Techniques Quiz

Metalworking: Shaping and Reshaping Metals

• Metalworking is the process of shaping and reshaping metals to create useful objects, parts, assemblies, and large scale structures.

• The historical roots of metalworking predate recorded history; its use spans cultures, civilizations and millennia.

• Modern metalworking processes can be categorized into one of three broad areas known as forming, cutting, or joining processes.

• Prehistoric metalworking involved shaping soft, native metals like gold with simple hand tools, through the smelting of ores and hot forging of harder metals like iron, up to highly technical modern processes such as machining and welding.

• Copper ore, being relatively abundant, and tin ore became the next important substances in the story of metalworking. Using heat to smelt copper from ore, a great deal of copper was produced.

• Until the advent of iron, bronze was the most advanced metal for tools and weapons in common use.

• Skills related to extracting metal ores from the earth began to evolve, and metalsmiths became more knowledgeable. Metalsmiths became important members of society.

• Metalworking generally is divided into three categories: forming, cutting, and joining.

• Casting achieves a specific form by pouring molten metal into a mold and allowing it to cool, with no mechanical force.

• Cutting is a collection of processes wherein material is brought to a specified geometry by removing excess material using various kinds of tooling to leave a finished part that meets specifications.

• Milling is the complex shaping of metal or other materials by removing material to form the final shape.

• Turning is a metal cutting process for producing a cylindrical surface with a single point tool.Metalworking Processes

• Lathes are machines that remove material from a rotating workpiece to produce a desired shape.

• Modern lathes use electric motors to power the spindle.

• The carriage is a platform that can move parallel and perpendicular to the axis of rotation.

• A cutting tool is held at the desired height by the toolpost.

• The tailstock can hold centers to secure the workpiece or cutting tools.

• Other operations that can be performed on a lathe are chamfering, parting, threading, boring, drilling, and knurling.

• Modern CNC lathes can produce most turned objects in 3D.

• Grinding uses an abrasive process to remove material from the workpiece.

• There are many threading processes including cutting threads with a tap or die, thread milling, single-point thread cutting, thread rolling, cold root rolling and forming, and thread grinding.

• Brazing is a joining process that involves melting a filler metal into a capillary formed by two workpieces.

• Soldering is a joining process that occurs at temperatures below 450°C.

• Riveting is a joining process that involves passing a rivet through the holes of two pieces of metal and forming permanent heads onto the ends of the rivet.

• Mechanical fixings include screws and bolts, and are often used in flat-pack furniture.

• Metals can be heat-treated to alter their properties.

• Electroplating and thermal spraying are common surface treatment techniques.