Rotary Index Tables are high precision positioning tools used in special cases of milling and metalworking. Their basic function is to offer the machinist the ability to work based on fixed intervals around a horizontal or vertical axis.
These rotating tables can be either manually operated or computer controlled, through a worm-screw that is fixed under the table and on to axial protrusions that turn the table clockwise or counter-clockwise for a complete 360 degrees turn. The maximum intervals number and indexing resolution depends on the worm-screw to table ratio.
Unique Milling Techniques
As with every piece of tool or machinery, there are many ways to utilize RITs to create something truly unique. The talent, experience and imagination of the machinist is the main motivational factor to explore RITs further through unconventional applications. Maybe the most remarkable use is a lathe alternative. If a RIT is combined with a chuck for holding the workpiece, a tailstock to mark the center and a stepper motor to turn the table's worm-screw, you get a mini lathe!
Another thing that can be realized through the use of a RIT is bolt head processing. Machinists can calculate the desired intervals and configure their RIT to accommodate the milling of pentagonal or hexagonal indentations onto a bolt's head.
Cutting & Drilling Uses
Rotary Index Tables are also regularly used for the cutting of straight lines at any angle, arcs and circular shapes. The arcs, being a demanding milling process, can be achieved by adding a compound table so that the center of the table's rotation can be displaced, thus resulting in a progressively off-centric machining.
If you're using an underpowered milling machine that can't drive large drills for the creation of large diameter holes, then a rotary index table can be utilized to gradually open an initially small hole into a larger one at the same precision of one time drill. The most demanding metalworking process that requires high levels of precision and accuracy is the helical machining.
Maybe the most demanding cutting process that index tables can help with is the realization of helixes. These three dimensional shapes are especially demanding as they require movement along at least three axis which is almost never possible by lathes alone. RITs come as a supplementary solution to this process, moving the workpiece rotational (two axis) while the cutting tool moves along the third axis thus creating the helix.
Last but not least, there is the indexing tables most popular use that is to drill equidistant holes on a circular flange. All that needs to be done from the machinist's side is to calculate the holes number and center to center distance, and then configure the rotary table accordingly. The boring process in that case becomes pretty straight forward and the result is very precise in terms of boring positioning.
These rotating tables can be either manually operated or computer controlled, through a worm-screw that is fixed under the table and on to axial protrusions that turn the table clockwise or counter-clockwise for a complete 360 degrees turn. The maximum intervals number and indexing resolution depends on the worm-screw to table ratio.
Unique Milling Techniques
As with every piece of tool or machinery, there are many ways to utilize RITs to create something truly unique. The talent, experience and imagination of the machinist is the main motivational factor to explore RITs further through unconventional applications. Maybe the most remarkable use is a lathe alternative. If a RIT is combined with a chuck for holding the workpiece, a tailstock to mark the center and a stepper motor to turn the table's worm-screw, you get a mini lathe!
Another thing that can be realized through the use of a RIT is bolt head processing. Machinists can calculate the desired intervals and configure their RIT to accommodate the milling of pentagonal or hexagonal indentations onto a bolt's head.
Cutting & Drilling Uses
Rotary Index Tables are also regularly used for the cutting of straight lines at any angle, arcs and circular shapes. The arcs, being a demanding milling process, can be achieved by adding a compound table so that the center of the table's rotation can be displaced, thus resulting in a progressively off-centric machining.
If you're using an underpowered milling machine that can't drive large drills for the creation of large diameter holes, then a rotary index table can be utilized to gradually open an initially small hole into a larger one at the same precision of one time drill. The most demanding metalworking process that requires high levels of precision and accuracy is the helical machining.
Maybe the most demanding cutting process that index tables can help with is the realization of helixes. These three dimensional shapes are especially demanding as they require movement along at least three axis which is almost never possible by lathes alone. RITs come as a supplementary solution to this process, moving the workpiece rotational (two axis) while the cutting tool moves along the third axis thus creating the helix.
Last but not least, there is the indexing tables most popular use that is to drill equidistant holes on a circular flange. All that needs to be done from the machinist's side is to calculate the holes number and center to center distance, and then configure the rotary table accordingly. The boring process in that case becomes pretty straight forward and the result is very precise in terms of boring positioning.
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