Maskinarbejde

Maskinarbejde, also called machining, is a category of manufacturing processes in which material is removed from a workpiece to produce a final part. It is performed on machine tools that provide controlled movement and cutting action, including lathes, milling machines, drill presses, grinders and specialized CNC equipment.

Machining covers a wide range of operations, such as turning (reducing diameter with a rotating workpiece), milling (removing material with rotating cutters), drilling, boring, tapping and threading, grinding, and finishing operations like honing and lapping. Advanced methods include Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM) and additive-to-subtractive hybrid processes in some shops, but machining mainly refers to subtractive processes.

Parts are produced from metals but machining also processes plastics, composites, and ceramics. Typical workflow includes part design, selecting materials, tooling and workholding, setting up the machine, selecting cutting parameters (speed, feed, depth of cut), and program or manually controlling the machine.

Tolerances and surface finishes are controlled through measurements using calipers, micrometers, coordinate measuring machines (CMM) and surface roughness gauges. In modern shops, computer numerical control (CNC) machines execute programmed instructions (G- and M-codes) via CAM software, enabling repeatable, high-precision production.

Quality is governed by tooling condition, machine calibration, fixturing, and process optimization. Maskinarbejde plays a central role in industries such as automotive, aerospace, electronics, energy, and medical devices.

Historically, it evolved from manual toolrooms through to CNC-based automated production, enabling high accuracy and complex geometries with high throughput.