Indexing head

An indexing head, also known as a dividing head or spiral head, is a specialized tool that allows a workpiece to be circularly indexed; that is, easily and precisely rotated to preset angles or circular divisions. Indexing heads are usually used on the tables of milling machines, but may be used on many other machine tools including drill presses, grinders, and boring machines. Common jobs for a dividing head include machining the flutes of a milling cutter, cutting the teeth of a gear, milling curved slots, or drilling a bolt hole circle around the circumference of a part.

The tool is similar to a rotary table except that it is designed to be tilted as well as rotated and often allows positive locking at finer gradations of rotation, including through differential indexing. Most adjustable designs allow the head to be tilted from 10° below horizontal to 90° vertical, at which point the head is parallel with the machine table.

The workpiece is held in the indexing head in the same manner as a metalworking lathe. This is most commonly a chuck but can include a collet fitted directly into the spindle on the indexing head, faceplate, or between centers. If the part is long then it may be supported with the help of an accompanying .

Indexing is an operation of dividing a periphery of a cylindrical workpiece into equal number of divisions by the help of index crank and index plate. A manual indexing head includes a hand crank. Rotating the hand crank in turn rotates the spindle and therefore the workpiece. The hand crank uses a worm gear drive to provide precise control of the rotation of the work. The work may be rotated and then locked into place before the cutter is applied, or it may be rotated during cutting depending on the type of machining being done.

Most dividing heads operate at a 40:1 ratio; that is 40 turns of the hand crank generates 1 revolution of the spindle or workpiece. In other words, 1 turn of the hand crank rotates the spindle by 9 degrees. Because the operator of the machine may want to rotate the part to an arbitrary angle indexing plates are used to ensure the part is accurately positioned.

Direct indexing plate: Most dividing heads have an indexing plate permanently attached to the spindle. This plate is located at the end of the spindle, very close to where the work would be mounted. It is fixed to the spindle and rotates with it. This plate is usually equipped with a series of holes that enables rapid indexing to common angles, such as 30, 45, or 90 degrees. A pin in the base of the dividing head can be extended into the direct indexing plate to lock the head quickly into one of these angles. The advantage of the direct indexing plate is that it is fast and simple and no calculations are required to use it. The disadvantage is that it can only be used for a limited number of angles.

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