Patent ID: 6884009

Claim:
A machine tool for processing a workpiece through relative movements between the workpiece and a tool in three directions of x-, y- and z-axes, comprising: a bed providing a base of the machine, a column movable along a guide extending in the left-and-right direction on a rear part of the bed; a spindle head movable along a guide extending in the up-and-down direction on a front face of the column and having a spindle receiving a tool at an end thereof; a trough disposed within a recess extending in a back-and-forth direction in the center of the bed; a table, disposed over the trough for back-and-forth linear motion along a pair of guides extending in the back-and-forth direction and disposed on the bed at a side of the trough, for mounting the workpiece; a feed screw, disposed outside of the trough, and inside, adjacent and parallel to either one of the pair of guides, for feeding the table in the back-and-forth direction; a splashguard, enclosing a machining zone, for preventing chips and machining fluid from spreading out; a cover for covering the guides for the table and the feed screw over the full stroke of the back-and-forth motion of the table and for introducing the chips and the machining fluid into the trough; a process nozzle, disposed around the spindle, for directing the machining fluid to the machining zone; and a chip conveyor nozzle, disposed in the trough, for directing the machining fluid to transfer the chips within the trough out of the machine; a machining fluid tank for containing the machining fluid; a machining fluid pump for supplying the machining fluid to the process nozzle and the chip conveyer nozzle from the machining fluid tank; a conduit for transferring the machine fluid in the machining fluid tank to the process nozzle and the chip conveyer nozzle; and a switching valve, disposed in the conduit, for directing the machining fluid supplied by the machining fluid pump to the process nozzle and the chip conveyer nozzle when the workpiece is processed, and for directing the machining fluid supplied by the machining fluid pump only to the chip conveyer nozzle when the workpiece is not processed.