铣床通过刀具的旋转并在工件上沿轴线的移动来完成金属的成型。很明显，铣床在机械加工的地位很重要。

The milling machine completes the forming of the metal through the rotation of the tool and the movement of the workpiece along the axis. It is obvious that the milling machine is very important in the position of mechanical processing.

 

虽然铣床主要是用来加工平的和方形的表面，但是也由很多其他的用途。熟练的技师可以用铣床来切削角度、圆角、镗孔，并能够利用一些铣床的附属设备加工圆弧、半圆弧和螺旋面（使用螺旋刀具——双螺旋或多螺旋刀具）。在铣床上利用一些专用刀具还可以加工齿轮齿、燕尾槽和T形槽。更重要的是，在铣床上加工上述工件形状时可以完全手动操作，而不需要使用计算机数控加工！

Although milling machines are mainly used to process flat and square surfaces, they are also used for many other purposes. Skilled technicians can use milling machines to cut angles, rounded corners and boring holes, and can make use of some milling machines' auxiliary equipment to process circular arc, semicircular arc and helicoid (using spiral tools -- double helix or multi spiral tool). The gear teeth, swallowtail grooves and T shaped grooves can be processed by using some special tools on the milling machine. More importantly, the machining of the above workpiece on the milling machine can be completely operated manually without the need of computer numerical control.

 

现在，如果我们使用计算机控制来驱动铣床的主轴，那么可加工的工件范围将更大 。使用计算机辅助设计/计算机辅助制造的生成程序来控制铣床，几乎可以加工出任何形状的工件。只要是可以在计算机屏幕上显示的工件形状基本上都可以利用铣削加工出来。

Now, if we use computer control to drive the spindle of the milling machine, the machinable workpiece will be larger. A computer aided design / computer-aided manufacturing program is used to control the milling machine, and almost any shape of the workpiece can be machined. As long as the shape of the workpiece that can be displayed on the computer screen can be machined by milling.

2中基本操作可以分为四种类型：

（1）端面铣削——用刀齿的尾部切割平面。

（2）仿形切割——用刀具的侧面加工工件的外形。

（3）钻孔。

（4）镗削——形成内部 圆形表面。