Abstract
Methods of producing profile tools and gauges remained for many years particularly conservative and often expensive in the use of highly skilled toolroom labour.
Up to comparatively recent times it was not uncommon to find high-class machine tools, such as jig boring machines, applied to the task of marking out centres of radii and so on, because they embody accurate means of measurement.
The early introductions of special-purpose machines for this work were mainly continental, and the advantages normally to be expected from the use of such machines were not altogether realized as the result of designs based inherently upon the use of master copy.
Later, machines were developed intended to be independent of copy to a very large extent, and this was facilitated by a trend of component design based upon the use of geometric and definable shapes wherever possible.
The application of optics to this class of machine, mainly in the form of microscopes or projection systems, is now fairly common, and in its application to engineering the optical projector perhaps reaches its highest standard of definition and accuracy of reproduction. The incorporation of optical and electrical measuring devices has also helped greatly in providing an accurate and versatile machine tool.
The object of the paper is to reveal aspects of design more peculiar to this type of machine, particularly the association of optics and mechanical linkages, and is therefore mainly confined to the copying and generating mechanisms. It also indicates the development trend of this class of design.
Methods of forming and truing the grinding wheel are not considered.
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