What Is a CNC Mill Drill Used for?

Posted on Apr 21, 2021

CNC mill drill

A CNC mill drill is a device that makes holes on the workpieces by the control of the computer-based CNC system, so as to meet the required shapes and forms of the products.

What Is a CNC mill drill?

A CNC mill drill is a device that makes holes on the workpieces by the control of the computer-based CNC system, so as to meet the required shapes and forms of the products. The CNC mill drill utilizes the drill bits, which are the tools used to produce holes, rotate rapidly, and remove the materials from the workpieces in the form of holes. These processes require the optimal rigidity of the drill bits on the CNC mill drill so that the deformation of the products can be prevented, and the lifespan of the tools can also be prolonged.

Furthermore, the CNC mill drill follows the instructions of the CNC system, which is the computer numerical control system, to conduct the drilling works. The CNC system contains the CAD and CAM processes. CAD stands for computer-aided design, which designs the shapes and forms as well as the intervals between each hole on the products, which can be customized and supposed to be drilled for the customers or businesses.CAM stands for computer-aided-manufacturing, which picks the suitable drill bits and controls the direction of the movements and the strength that the drill bits should have following the codes, which are the instructions that are presented in the form of numbers.

The above processes that the CNC mill drill would be performed are all automatic, which are all maneuvered by the computer. The operators should only actuate the device by the control panel or the interface then the CNC mill drill would be operated automatically. The computer-operated CNC mill drill allows the products that are made to follow identical standards, decrease the cost of labor expenditure, and provides the most efficient work in the making of the products, which is a device that is widely applied in the large-scale manufacturing industries.


How Does a CNC Mill Drill Work?

Before a CNC mill drill is operated to produce holes on the workpieces to make the products, the customized programs should be designed by the programmer with the CAD system first. Once the program is completely designed according to customers’ needs, the operator initiates the CAM system, which is supposed to control the movements of the drill bits on the CNC mill drill.

The drill bits are usually clamped on the work holding device called the collets. The collects play the role in holding and aligning the drill bits in place and prevent them from dropping off or deviating from where they should be during the rapid rotating process. In the process of making one type of product, various drill bits might be required to make holes with different diameters and depths on the workpieces. Therefore, before the CNC mill drill is operated, the operators should install the suitable drill bits on the collets.

There are usually multiple headstocks, which are equipped with the collets and mounted on the CNC mill drill for interchanging the drill bits during the drilling process. The operator only needs to install the drill bits in the beginning, then the changing of the drill bits would be the duty of the computer. When the program is set up and initiated, as well as the drill bits are installed properly, the CNC mill drill would start to work. According to the instructions of the program, the drill bits would be controlled with the direction of the movements and the depths that they should drill on the workpieces. Once the desired holes are drilled on the workpieces as the customized forms, the products are finished. These processes would be repeated until the required working load is achieved.

:: Read more: Consider These Things Before You Buy a Mill Drill Machine


What Are the Features of CNC Mill Drill?


● Drill bits can be thin but sturdy

If the manufacturer is going to make small holes on the product, the machine tools should be thin enough in order to meet the required diameter of the holes, while the thin tools should be sturdy enough as well, so as to withstand the rapid operating of the tools. On the CNC mill drill, the drill bits are compatible with these features, which are thin to be able to make extremely small holes, and sturdy enough to prevent the fracturing of the tools.


● Can make deeper holes

Since the drill bits on the CNC mill drill are specialized in working vertically down to the workpieces, they are capable of making deeper holes compared to other kinds of machine tools.


● High efficiency

The drill bits on the CNC mill drill are usually equipped with high speed and high strength at the same time, which makes them produce holes on the workpieces very fast and thus reaches the optimal efficiency


● Precise drilling

In addition to the efficiency, the precision that the machine tools can achieve is also important in the device that adopts the CNC system. The CNC mill drill is definitely no doubt provides the most precise drilling works to make the standardized products, which makes this machine be widely applied in the industrial fields.


CNC Mill Drill vs. CNC End Mill

The CNC mill drill and the CNC end mill are both common devices that are used to conduct precision machining works. Although they are often mentioned together, they are actually different in the working direction, the purposes, and the tools they use.


● Working direction

As the above introduction has mentioned, the CNC mill drill works with the vertical direction, which is to keep the workpieces stationary and rotate the drill bits from the surfaces down to the workpieces. In contrast, the CNC end mill can be operated vertically as well as horizontally, depending on the requirements of the products and how the devices are installed.


● The purposes

The main purpose of the CNC mill drill is to make a small, deep, and large volume of holes, while the CNC endmill does different things instead. If big holes are required to be made on the workpieces, holes with flat bottoms, or different sizes of holes, then the CNC end mill would be preferred to apply. Since the tools that are equipped with the CNC end mill can be presented as more sophisticated forms than the drill bits, and thus make the CNC end mill suitable for these machining processes.


● The tools

Because the drill bits of the CNC mill drill is supposed to produce round holes typically for the machine screws and bolts, the cutting part would be flat on the sides, and round on the tips. While the CNC end mill is used to produce various types of holes, the tools that it is equipped with would be more kinds than that of the CNC mill drill, which is another variation between these two types of CNC machines.


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