Patent ID: 7043332

Claim:
A numerically controlled lathe comprising: a lathe bed; at least one spindle installed on said lathe bed; at least one tool rest installed on said lathe bed; and a control unit for controlling operations of said at least one spindle and said at least one tool rest on said lathe bed along a plurality of control axes in a plurality of lines; wherein said control unit comprises: an input section for inputting a plurality of machining programs about a plurality of tools mounted in said at least one tool rest; a storage section including a plurality of program-describing areas individually corresponding to said plurality of lines, for describing and storing said plurality of machining programs input by said input section in said plurality of program-describing areas; and a processing section for allocating said plurality of control axes to said plurality of program-describing areas in said storage section, each of said control axes being as a reference control axis, and for applying, to an actual control axis for controlling a machining operation relating to one designated tool designated in each of said plurality of machining programs, said reference control axis allocated to a program-describing area freely selected from said plurality of program-describing areas to describe a machining program designating said designated tool; and wherein each of said plurality of machining programs are able to be described in a desired program-describing area freely selected from said plurality of program-describing areas.