page_title: Metal lathe
section_title: Swiss-style lathe / Swiss turning center
hierarchical_section_title: Metal lathe / Types of metal lathes / Swiss-style lathe / Swiss turning center
caption_attribution_description: English: A view inside the enclosure of a CNC Swiss-style screw machine, built circa 1990s or 2000s. A gang of single-point tools slides on either side of the main spindle. The back spindle can take a part from the main spindle and hold it for additional cutting operations on the backside. Finished parts then slide down the ramps into a tray. Depending on the part design, the cycle may be very short, and the finished parts come sliding out at a prodigious rate. The blue-and-orange objects are nozzles that direct a flood of coolant directly into the cutting area.
context_page_description: A metal lathe or metalworking lathe is a large class of lathes designed for precisely machining relatively hard materials. They were originally designed to machine metals; however, with the advent of plastics and other materials, and with their inherent versatility, they are used in a wide range of applications, and a broad range of materials. In machining jargon, where the larger context is already understood, they are usually simply called lathes, or else referred to by more-specific subtype names. These rigid machine tools remove material from a rotating workpiece via the movements of various cutting tools, such as tool bits and drill bits.
context_section_description: A Swiss-style lathe is a specific design of lathe providing extreme accuracy (sometimes holding tolerances as small as a few tenths of a thousandth of an inch—a few micrometers). A Swiss-style lathe holds the workpiece with both a collet and a guide bushing. The collet sits behind the guide bushing, and the tools sit in front of the guide bushing, holding stationary on the Z axis. To cut lengthwise along the part, the tools will move in and the material itself will move back and forth along the Z axis. This allows all the work to be done on the material near the guide bushing where it is more rigid, making them ideal for working on slender workpieces as the part is held firmly with little chance of deflection or vibration occurring. This style of lathe is commonly used under CNC control.
  Most CNC Swiss-style lathes today use one or two main spindles plus one or two back spindles (secondary spindles). The main spindle is used with the guide bushing for the main machining operations. The secondary spindle is located behind the part, aligned on the Z axis. In simple operation it picks up the part as it is cut off, and accepts it for second operations, then ejects it into a bin, eliminating the need to have an operator manually change each part, as is often the case with standard CNC turning centers. This makes them very efficient, as these machines are capable of fast cycle times, producing simple parts in one cycle (i.e., no need for a second machine to finish the part with second operations), in as little as 10–15 seconds. This makes them ideal for large production runs of small-diameter parts.
caption: A view inside the enclosure of a CNC Swiss-style lathe/screw machine
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