Radial Drilling Services: What is it About?

17 August 2018

Imagine encountering this hassle. A large workpiece requires drilling, but there’s no way the chunky plate will fit on a conventional upright drilling machine. That’s a common scenario, especially in machine shops that deal with larger project pieces. When this situation occurs, the last thing we want to do is turn away the client because the workshop isn’t equipped to handle a large-scale drilling job, right?

Add Radial Drilling to the Workshop Repertoire 

Mounted on a tall column, a radial arm terminates in a geared drill head. Imagine a worksite crane, the kind that uses a mast and horizontal arm. Radial drilling machines look like a scaled-down model of that larger design. Only, there’s a drill head on the end of the arm, not crane rigging. There are, of course, smaller versions of this drilling equipment, which sit on workbenches, but larger models require floor space. With that space made available, a large-scale radial drilling station can pierce heavy-duty slabs of metal. Used by a skilled operator, this versatile machinery quickly and accurately drills numerous depth-controlled holes.

A Floor-Located Machining Service 

A hodge-podge of rickety drilling tools has been set up to make a series of holes in a man-sized workpiece. There’s a machine vise and a pair of screw jacks supporting the plate metal. When a new hole is required, there’s a flurry of activity as the metal is moved in line with the upright drill. That’s the kind of arrangement a less than capable machine shop can offer. And it’s not exactly a professional setup. No, equipped to deal with larger workpieces and large arrays of drilled holes, full-service workshops use radial drilling machine. They fit on workbenches or occupy entire floor corners. The radial arm extends, it rotates, and it rises then falls. Using this free-moving but accurate equipment, there’s now no need to reposition a workpiece.

This is a three-stage machine. For the first stage, the tall column supports a radial arm. That arm represents stage two, the drill arm, a section that’s powered by servo motors so that it can move up and down the column. Finally, for the third stage, a system-independent geared drill head moves on its own to pierce metal surfaces to an exact depth. Utilized as part of a machine process, cranes and hoists easily maneuver raw parts into place below the mast and arm. These sections swing out of the way until the workpiece is prepped. Better yet, of course, there’s no need to reposition the part when multiple holes are being drilled, not when the radial arm can extend or retract on command.