Applications Across Industries
The sectors these machines work in most often, the parts they cut, and which of the five ranges the work usually belongs on. If your part is not on this page, send the drawing and we will tell you which frame it fits.
01 / Gantry and horizontal machining centres
Aerospace Manufacturing
Long aluminium structures come off the gantry frames, where the table runs the length of the part and the rail stays put. Casings and housings go on the horizontal centres, because a pallet changer turns four faces without a re-clamp and the swarf falls away from the cut instead of sitting in it.
Typical parts
Structural frames, engine casings, wing ribs and landing gear parts.
What the work usually runs on
- Gantry centres for parts longer than a table can carry
- Horizontal centres with a pallet changer for four-face housings
- Boring mills where a large bore has to stay true to a datum face
- CNC cylindrical grinders for shaft and pin work to 0.0005 mm roundness
02 / Horizontal and vertical machining centres
Automotive Industry
Volume work lives or dies on cycle time and on how many set-ups a part needs. Horizontal centres with pallet changers keep the spindle cutting while the next part is loaded. Downstream, the follow-up grinders finish crank pins and cam lobes without the part ever leaving centres.
Typical parts
Cylinder blocks and heads, gearbox casings, crankshafts, camshafts and axle housings.
What the work usually runs on
- Horizontal centres with pallet changers for block and casing work
- Vertical centres for covers, brackets and manifolds
- MGKW8250 follow-up crankshaft grinder, pins and mains in one set-up
- MKS8320×500 camshaft grinder, lobe profile under follow-up control
- HD-010 twin-wheel grinder for axle housings and axle shafts
- Radial and gang drills for repeat hole patterns
03 / Vertical centres, turn-mill centres and precision grinders
Medical Equipment
Small parts to tight tolerance, usually in stainless or titanium, usually in small batches. Turn-mill centres do the whole part in one clamping so the features stay concentric; the high precision grinders take over where the tolerance is finer than turning can hold.
Typical parts
Implant components, instrument bodies, bone screws and imaging hardware.
What the work usually runs on
- Turn-mill centres with a Y axis and driven tooling, complete in one clamping
- Vertical centres for instrument bodies and plate work
- MGK precision CNC grinders, roundness to 0.0005 mm and Ra 0.04 μm
- HDGie2010 composite grinder, bore and outer circle within 0.002 mm of each other
- Gundrilling to 150:1 for coolant and instrument passages
04 / Vertical and gantry machining centres
Mould And Die Manufacturing
Tool steel is unforgiving: the finish left by the machine is the finish the polisher has to work out. That puts the weight on rigidity and on how the machine behaves at the end of a long Z reach, not on rapid traverse figures.
Typical parts
Injection tools, die casting dies, press tools and large stamping dies.
What the work usually runs on
- Gantry centres for large press and stamping dies
- Vertical centres with box ways where the cut is heavy
- Boring mills for die-set bores and locating features
- Radial drills for ejector and cooling-line patterns
05 / Gantry centres, heavy lathes and floor-type boring mills
Energy And Industrial Equipment
This is where the part stops fitting on a table. Vertical lathes take the flanges and rings; floor-type boring mills go to the weldment rather than the other way round, adding bed sections as the job grows; heavy horizontal lathes handle shafts and rolls up to 12 m.
Typical parts
Turbine casings, wind gearbox housings, valve bodies, flanges and pressure vessels.
What the work usually runs on
- Vertical turning lathes for flanges, rings and turbine casings
- Heavy horizontal lathes to 12 m between centres
- TK69 floor-type boring mills, X travel grows with the bed
- TK68 and TK65 rotary-table mills carrying 10 t and 20 t
- Gantry centres for long frames and bed castings
- Deep hole drilling for hydraulic cylinders and piston rods
Not Listed
Send The Part, Not The Sector
Sectors are a rough guide. What actually decides the machine is the size and weight of the part, the tolerance on the drawing and how many you make a shift.
Send the drawing, the material and the batch size. We will say which of the five ranges it belongs on, and where the capacity runs out.
Ask An EngineerApplication FAQs
Matching Machines To Industries, Answered
Which CNC machines does the automotive industry actually use?
Volume work runs on horizontal machining centres with pallet changers, because the spindle keeps cutting while the next part is loaded, and covers, brackets and manifolds go on vertical centres. Downstream, follow-up crankshaft and camshaft grinders finish journals and lobes without the part leaving centres. That is the combination described on this page, and it can all come from one plant.
My industry is not on this page. How do I find the right machine?
Sectors are only a rough guide. What actually decides the machine is the size and weight of the part, the tightest tolerance on the drawing, and how many you make per shift. Send those three details with the drawing and we will name which of the five ranges the work belongs on, and where the capacity runs out.
Can one machine cover work from several of these industries?
Often, yes. A vertical machining centre that cuts mould cavities will also handle medical housings and general plate work, because the demands overlap. Where the industries genuinely diverge — aerospace structures needing gantry reach, or oilfield tubulars needing a large through-bore — a general machine stops being the economical answer, and this page shows where those lines sit.
Do you configure the same model differently for different industries?
Yes. Control package, spindle class, guideway type, tool magazine and coolant are named line by line on the quotation, and those lines are what change between an aerospace buyer and a jobbing shop buying the same frame. The casting, ageing and ISO 230-2 acceptance testing stay the same whoever the machine is for.
What should I send to get an industry-specific recommendation?
The part drawing, the material, the tightest tolerance you must hold, and the yearly quantity. With those four, the first reply names a machine model and a price band. Without them the specification takes several exchanges to settle — the enquiry checklist on the contact page walks through the same four details.