One of the striking things about Mazak’s new knowledge center on multitasking (see our home page) is how few of the part examples included within it are round. The turbine blade seen here is one example of a part that makes sense for multitasking. Others are bicycle forks, block-shaped pump parts and even cylinder heads. See the array of part examples.
We tend to think of multitasking as involving a live-tool lathe. That mindset limits our view. The different levels of multitasking actually include machine tools that depart from lathes significantly. Even on the machines that are lathes, roundness is not required.
Keep that in mind as you take another look at your own process. Even some of your highly asymmetric parts might be good candidates for processing in one setup via multitasking.
