Contents

1 Manufacturing Processes

2 Casting

3 Forming

4 Machining

4.1

Rough Machining Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4.2

Finishing Machining Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5 Joining Processes

6 Quality Parameters

7 Manufacturing Costs

8 Machining Centers and Lot sizes

9 Numerical Example

10 Semi-conductor Manufacturing

11 Nano-Manufacturing

10

Manufacturing Processes

This handout focuses on traditional manufacturing. In particular, we will discuss manufacturing of metallic products.
Changing the raw material from its raw form to the final product requires a sequence of
operations / processes. These processes are called manufacturing processes. In the context
of metals, the major processes are
1. Casting
2. Forming
3. Machining (Material Removal)
4. Joining Processes
In what follows, the word job will be used to refer to the product in its raw form or semifinished form.

Casting

Casting is usually the first step in manufacturing. In casting, the metal is liquefied by heating
it to the right temperature in a furnace. Then the molten metal is poured into a cavity where
it is allowed to solidify. The cavity is carefully prepared so that it has the desired shape and
properties. When the solidification occurs, the part is removed from the cavity. The part
produced is also called a casting.

Forming

Forming is a process which imparts the desired shape and size to the material by applying
force. The type of deformation that causes change in shape is called plastic deformation.
Plastic deformation changes the dimensions of an object but does not fracture it. Forming can
be done at room temperatures or at elevated temperatures. Considerable force is required in
forming; the amount of force needed depends on the raw material. There are three important
types of forming processes:
1. Rolling: In rolling, a job is pushed through a gap between two so-called power-driven
rolls. Sheet metal is commonly produced by rolling.
3

2. Forging: In forging, the job is squeezed between two so-called dies in order to change
its shape.
3. Extrusion: In extrusion, the job is forced to flow out of an opening of desired size
through a closed die.

Machining

The objects produced by casting do not usually have the dimensions required of the final
product. As a result, some amount of material is removed from their surfaces in order to
impart the desired dimensions. Processes in which material is removed are called materialremoval or machining processes. Machining processes are easily the most visible of manufacturing processes. Machining enabled production of replaceable parts in high volume. This
was the basis of the industrial revolution.
Any machining process requires a tool to remove material. The tool is called the cutting
tool. The machine that holds the tool is called a machine tool. The tool is usually moved
in this process. In some cases, the job is also moved. Motion of the tool or the job is called
feed. The cutting tool is stronger than the material being machined, and causes fracture of
the job. The fracture results in chips, i.e., fragments of the fractured job. These chips have
to be removed. Also, usually, the fracture process causes intense heat, and a cooling fluid
has to be continuously poured into the cutting area.
Material removal is usually done in a sequence. The initial processes in the sequence remove
a large volume of material but usually produce a rough surface. Such processes are called
rough machining processes. Usually rough machining processes are followed by finishing
processes. In finishing operations, very little material is removed, but the surface finish
produced is considerably superior to that produced in rough machining.

4.1

Rough Machining Processes

Four important rough machining processes are:

1. Turning
2. Milling
3. Drilling
4. Shaping / Planing.

Turning is used to produce cylinders. The job is rotated, while the tool is moved in a
direction parallel to the axis of the job. The cutting speed, i.e., the speed of the job at which
it is cut, in turning is in the range 150 600 m/min. (150m/min for cemented carbide tools
and 600 m/min for ceramic tools) If the rpm of the job is N and the diameter is D, then
the cutting speed is N D. If the length of the job is L and the distance moved by the tool
in one revolution of the job is f , then the time for one pass is L/(f N ) minutes.
Milling is a widely-used machining operation for producing slots of various shapes and sizes
(called slot milling) and flat surfaces (called face milling). The tool is called a milling cutter.
It has a large number of cutting edges.
Drilling is a process used to produce holes inside solid parts. The tool is rotated and also
moved in the axial direction. The tool has cutting edges on its surface.
Shaping is used to produce flat surfaces. The tool is given reciprocating motion. When the
tool completes one stroke, the job is moved in a perpendicular direction by a small distance
so that uncut material is provided to the tool to perform one more stroke. In a planar, the
job moves in a reciprocating style and tool moves a small distance after one stroke.

4.2

Finishing Machining Processes

(Also called Abrasive machining processes.) Grinding and lapping are the two popular
processes for finishing.
Surface grinding is the most commonly-used grinding process. See figure in the accompanying
handout. The grains in a grinding wheel act as cutters. The grinding wheel is rotated at
very high speeds. The cutting speeds in grinding are in the range: 30 120 m/s. Intense
heat is generated, and hence grinding cannot be performed without cooling fluids. Without
cooling fluids, damage can occur to the tool and the job. The amount of material removed in
grinding is usually of the order of 100 microns. Cubic boron nitride (CBN) is a commonlyused substance in the grains of the grinding wheel. (This is a very hard substance.)
Lapping is used on flat or cylindrical surfaces. The tool is called the lap. The lap may be
made of cast iron, copper, leather, or even cloth. Abrasive particles are embedded in the
lap, or they are carried in a slurry (a mixture of cutting fluids and abrasive particles) which
is sprayed on the cutting zone. The lap brushes against the job in order to remove material.
It is important to remember that all tools wear with age. Aging occurs when the tool is used.
The aging process also depends on the cutting speed. The cutting speed is usually dictated
by surface finish requirements. Tooling cost is a major component of the total manufacturing
cost. The tools for finishing operations tend to be more expensive.

Joining Processes

Joining processes are used to assemble two or more products. Welding is the most commonlyused joining process. Assembly may also involve using bolts or rivets. This is called mechanical assembly. In welding, however, the two components are joined together in a manner
such that disassembly is not easy; the components are either fused at an atomic or molecular
level.
Hot welding can be of following types: (i) gas welding and (ii) electric arc welding. In hot
welding, the parts to be joined are melted (fused) either using chemical energy (gas welding)
or electrical energy (electric arc welding).
In cold welding, pressure is applied on both parts to produce plastic deformation. Dies
or rolls are used to exert force on both jobs. If both parts are ductile, because of plastic
deformation, the parts get joined when they come out of the roll.

Quality Parameters

The mechanical strength of the product, the dimensional accuracy, and the surface finish
are three important criteria for determining the quality of the product. Usually customers
have specifications for each of these parameters, and as a result, these parameters must be
measured before the product is shipped to a customer.
The surface roughness is a measure of the height of unevenness on the surface of the job.
It is also important to know that every product has a tolerance on its dimensions. The
tolerance is the total amount by which a dimension, e.g., length, diameter, is permitted to
vary. In the final stages of machining, only a small amount of material should be removed
in order to maintain a desired tolerance. The amount of variation in the dimensions is a
critical indicator of the quality of the product. The surface finish of several types of parts
(e.g., bearings) is a critical quality parameter.
Usually machining processes have no effect of the strength of the material. The strength is
determined by the type of raw material used in the product, the forming processes used, and
by heat-treatment of the job, if any is performed.
Table 1 (based on Ghosh and Mallik, 1985) gives a range of the average height of unevenness
(Hav ) and the tolerances (T ) produced in various operations.

Manufacturing Costs

The manufacturing cost of a part has the following major components:

6

Process
Turning
Milling
Drilling
Shaping
Grinding

Hav (m)
0.05 25
0.25 25
0.75 12.5
0.375 25
0.025 1.5

T (mm)
0.05 0.3
0.05 0.3
0.05 0.3
0.05 0.3
0.004 0.04

Table 1: Average unevenness and tolerance produced by machining processes

1. Cost of raw material
2. Storage cost
3. Manufacturing cost
4. Material-handling cost
5. Management cost (overhead cost)
The raw material cost depends on the type of raw material and also on the size of the order
placed. Usually larger order quantities reduce unit cost, but pose other problems that we
will discuss later.
Storage cost is the cost of storing the raw material, the semi-finished product, and the
finished goods in the manufacturing plant.
The cost of manufacturing processes depends on the nature of the manufacturing operations
(machines) required, the tooling costs, the time for machining, the labor costs, the inspection
costs, and the cost of rework/scrap. In case of machining, the finishing processes cost more
than the rough machining processes. (Why?)
It is to be remembered that finishing operations are the operations where the profits are.
They require greater skill, trained quality personnel, expensive machines, and expensive
tools. Usually, profit margins are higher in products that require finishing than in those
which do not.
Material-handling cost is the cost of moving material (raw material, semi-finished product,
and the finished product). This cost is the hidden cost. It is estimated that the materialhandling cost can be up to 60 % of the manufacturing cost.
Management costs are the costs of other operational expenses, e.g., salaries of personnel
involved.

Machining Centers and Lot sizes

A machining center is a computer-controlled versatile machine that can do a number of

operations at the same site. Examples of operations are typically: turning, milling, and
drilling.
When a part switches from one machine to another for a different type of operation, it has
to be unloaded from the first machine and loaded on the second. The time spent in the
unloading and loading, i.e., setup change, can be considerable. The greatest advantage of
the machining center is that the set-up time is considerably reduced.
The lot size is the number of parts produced on a machine before the tools are changed
for some other part or operation. If setup times are large, it makes sense economically to
have large lot sizes. This is because with small lot sizes and long setup times, a considerable
fraction of the actual time spent in manufacturing is taken by the setups. However, a mantra
of modern manufacturing is small lot sizes (for various reasons that we will discuss later).
Hence, it is imperative to reduce setup times. The machining center provides one mechanism
to reduce setup times.

Numerical Example

We now consider a numerical example that demonstrates how the RPM can be changed
adaptively in order to minimize the production time in turning.
A cylinder is to be turned. The initial dimensions of the stock are Diameter = D = 120 mm,
and length = L = 500mm. The depth of cut is not to exceed 3 mm and the cutting speed is
not to exceed 600m/min. The feed for the tool is 0.125 mm per revolution (of job). Assume
that the maximum permissible RPM is 3000.
How may passes will be needed if the final diameter is to be 105 mm? If the RPM of the
job is never changed, how long will it take to produce one job? If the RPM is changed
adaptively as the diameter of the job shrinks, what savings will be obtained in the cutting
time? Assuming that the loading and unloading time is negligible, how many extra parts
can be manufactured in one day (assume that the machine is run for 24 hours in one day)?
Solution:
Let N denote the RPM of the job and let Di denote the diameter of the job before the ith
pass. Let ti denote the cutting time needed in the ith pass and d the maximum depth of cut
in one pass. Let (x)+ denote the smallest integer greater than or equal to x.
The number of passes needed is

Df inal Dinitial
2d

!+

120 105
(2)(3)
8

!+

= (2.5)+ = 3.

Then since v = N D1 600 m/min, it follows that:

N

600
= 1591.
120/1000

Since the cutting time is L/(f N ), we wish to use the maximum possible value for N . Hence
N = 1591. Then:
L
500
ti =
=
= 2.51 minutes.
fN
(0.125)(1591)
If the RPM is not changed, the time in each of the remaining passes will also be 2.51 minutes.
Hence the total time will be (3)(2.51) = 7.53 minutes.
Now let us assume that we can revise the RPM after each pass.
In the second pass, D2 = D1 (2)(3) = 114
N
Hence the cutting time (t2 ) will be

600
= 1675.
114/1000

500
(0.125)(1675)

= 2.38 minutes.

Similarly, RPM in the third pass will be:

N
and hence the cutting time (t3 ) will be

600
= 1768,
114/1000
500
(0.125)(1768)

= 2.26.

The total cutting time, with changing RPMs, will be 2.51 + 2.38 + 2.26 = 7.15, which implies
that savings in time per part are:
7.53 7.15
= 5.04%.
7.53
In one day, the number of additional parts that can be produced with a changing-RPM
strategy is:
(24)(60) (24)(60)

= 201 191 = 10.

7.15
7.53

10

Semi-conductor Manufacturing

Please see the notes on the web.

11

Nano-Manufacturing

The class of manufacturing that requires tolerances of the order of a few nanometers is called
nano-manufacturing. Note that:
10 9 meter = 1 nanometer = 0.000000039370078 inch.
This kind of manufacturing is required for a number of products used in new technologies.
Examples of such products are materials for super-fast computers, biological equipment of
the size of the atom that can enter our bodies to perform corrective action, etc.

10