What is the difference between a horizontal and a four-axis machining center

In the machining process, horizontal machining centers are relatively uncommon, while four-axis machining centers are more common. What are the differences between horizontal machining center processing and four-axis machining center processing? Let’s briefly talk about it now.

First of all, the horizontal machining center is a machining method that uses high-speed rotating tools for metal cutting to remove material.  Is a machine tool that realizes milling processing through a horizontally arranged spindle mechanism. Due to the horizontal arrangement of the spindle, the tool reciprocates along the side of the workpiece to promote effective chip discharge. The horizontal machining center can also be equipped with a double exchange table to achieve unattended operation and shorten the workpiece processing cycle.

Four-axis machining center generally has six degrees of freedom when the workpiece is not positioned in space, three degrees of freedom for linear displacement of X, Y, and Z, and three degrees of freedom for rotational displacement corresponding to A, B, and C. Usually, what we call a three-axis machining center is to process objects through three linear axes, X, Y, and Z. The four-axis is to increase the A rotation axis on the basis of the three-axis, that is, the object is processed on the four degrees of freedom of X, Y, Z, and A.

In fact, the horizontal machining center is also a kind of four-axis machining center, but its processing stroke and function are generally stronger than that of the four-axis machining center. Some people call the horizontal machining center a compound machining center.

SKWD has Mazak horizontal machining center, which not only can meet the needs of daily precision machining parts, but also suitable for processing some large die-casting parts. With Longze CNC lathes and vertical machining centers, it can fully meet the needs of CNC precision machining demand.