SHAPERS

Shaper is a pivotal machining tool used in the production of various oil mill machinery. Its basic purpose is to shape or surface metal and other allied materials. The tooling for these shapers is minimal and highly cost-effective for the reproduction. These machining tools have proved invaluable for the repair and jobbing shops, where just one or small number of pieces are needed for being reproduced. Shapers are operated mechanically and attributed with simple / robust construction, which consequently makes their repairing and up-keep very easy. Correspondingly, they ensure that the oil mill machinery produced using them is precisely engineered and conforms to the standards recommenced by the industry.

There are different types of shapers such as standard, draw-cut, geared, hydraulic, contour, crank, horizontal, universal, vertical, and traveling head. The horizontal shapers are most commonly used by various manufacturers. In general, the vertical shapers have a rotary table fitted with it, which enables the machining of the curved surfaces. This is very useful in making the curved surface of particular oil mill machinery, enabling smoother processing of oilseeds.

The basic operation of shapers is by the movement of a hardening cutting tool in the backward direction and then in the forward direction, across the entire workpiece. The cutting action is reduced to one direction, when the tool is lifted to height which makes it clear of the workpiece on the ram's return stroke. The other important points of its function are as follows:

• Workpiece is mounted on a rigid, box shaped table which is placed in the machine's front side
• Table height is adjustable to suit this workpiece, and the table is able to traverse sideways beneath the reciprocating tool (mounted on ram)
• Generally, the table motion is controlled by an automatic feed mechanism; though it can be controlled manually
• Above the workpiece, the ram slides back and forth
• It also has a tool-slide, which allows to deepen a cut by feeding the tool in the downward direction
• In addition, cutting fluid may be used for the improvement of the finish and increasing the life of the tool