|  | B |
SECTION B — PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING

SHAPING

|  | B23 |
MACHINE TOOLS; METAL-WORKING NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR (punching, perforating, making articles by processing sheet metal, tubes, or profiles Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...B21D; wire-working Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...B21F; making pins, needles, or nails Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...B21G; making chains Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...B21L; grinding Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...B24)

|  | B23 |
Note(s) In addition to operations not provided for in any other class, this class provides, in sub-class Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...B23P, for combinations of operations provided for in different sub-classes of classes Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...B21-B24, with the exception of subsidiary operations performed in conjunction with main operations covered by a single sub-class. In the following elaborations: The term "metal-working" should be understood as covering the working of other materials unless the context requires otherwise. The term "kind of operation" and similar expressions relate to such metal-working operations as boring, drilling, milling and grinding. The term "kind of machine" means a machine designed for a particular kind of metal-working operation (e.g. a lathe). The term "form of machine" means a machine of a particular kind adapted or arranged for a particular way of working or for particular work, e.g. face-plate lathe, tailstock lathe, turret lathe. The term "different machines" is to be understood as covering different forms of machines for performing the same type of metal-working operation, e.g. vertical and horizontal boring machines. Sub-class Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...B23Q comprises features, specific to machine tools, which relate to a requirement or problem of a nature which is not peculiar to a particular kind of machine tool, e.g. feeding work, although the realisation of these features may differ according to the kind of machine tool concerned. That sub-class provides in general for such features, even if the feature or a specific function, in any particular case, is to some extent peculiar to, or is claimed only for, machine tools designed for one particular operation; only in exceptional cases are such features to be classified in the sub-class for the machine tool concerned. Certain features of this general nature are, however, referred to sub-classes relating to particular metal-working operations, especially Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...B23B, in which case the sub-classes in question are not restricted, in respect of those features, to the kind of machine tool with which they are primarily concerned. If details, components, or accessories have no essential feature specific to machine tools, the more general class, e.g. Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...F16, takes precedence.

|  | B23B |
TURNING; BORING (arrangements for copying or controlling Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...B23Q)

|  | B23C |
MILLING (broaching Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...B23D; broach-milling in making gears Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...B23F; arrangements for copying or controlling Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...B23Q)

|  | B23D |
PLANING; SLOTTING; SHEARING; BROACHING; SAWING; FILING; SCRAPING; LIKE OPERATIONS FOR WORKING METAL BY REMOVING MATERIAL, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR (making toothed gears or the like Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...B23F; cutting metal by applying heat locally Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...B23K; arrangements for copying or controlling Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...B23Q)

|  | B23D |
Note(s) This sub-class provides for machines for shearing sheet metal or other stock material except metal foils workable in a manner analagous to paper, which is covered by class Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...B26. [2]

|  | B23F |
MAKING GEARS AND TOOTHED RACKS (by stamping Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...B21D; by rolling Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...B21H; by forging or pressing Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...B21K; by casting Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...B22; arrangements for copying or controlling Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...B23Q)

|  | B23F |
Note(s) This sub-class includes primarily the use of methods and apparatus specially designed to produce accurately the shapes of gear teeth which are essential for proper intermeshing of toothed gearing elements to ensure the required relative motions. It also includes the use of similar methods and apparatus in the production of other articles of toothed or like form, e.g. dog clutches, splined shafts, milling cutters, but the production of such articles using other methods and apparatus is not included. In this sub-class: The term "gear teeth" is to be understood as covering the teeth or lobes of other accurately-intermeshing members having relative movement of a similar kind, such as rotors of rotary pumps and blowers. The term "profile" may include the outline of both faces or only one face of a tooth, or the opposing faces of adjacent teeth. The term "straight" means that a tooth as a whole (ignoring any curvature of the tooth-face alone, e.g. crowning) is straight in the direction of its length, for example as seen in the direction of a radius of a spur wheel. It accordingly includes the teeth of helical gears and of the normal type of bevel gear. "Broach-milling" means milling with a rotary cutter having a number of teeth of progressively increasing depth or width.

|  | B23G |
THREAD CUTTING; WORKING OF SCREWS, BOLT HEADS, OR NUTS, IN CONJUNCTION THEREWITH (thread-forming by corrugating tubes Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...B21D 15/04; by rolling Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...B21H 3/02, by forging, pressing, or hammering Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...B21K 1/56; making helical grooves by turning Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...B23B 5/48, by milling Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...B23C 3/32, by grinding Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...B24B 19/02; arrangements for copying or controlling Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...B23Q)

|  | B23G |
Note(s) The term "thread cutting" is to be understood as including the use of tools similar both in form and in manner of use to thread-cutting tools, but without removing any material.

|  | B23K |
SOLDERING; WELDING; CLADDING OR PLATING BY SOLDERING OR WELDING; CUTTING BY APPLYING HEAT LOCALLY, e.g. FLAME CUTTING; WORKING BY LASER BEAM (making metal-coated products by extruding metal Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...B21C 23/22; building up linings or coverings by casting Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...B22D 19/08; casting by dipping Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...B22D 23/04; manufacture of composite layers by sintering metal powder Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...B22F 7/00; arrangements on machine tools for copying or controlling Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...B23Q; covering metals or covering materials with metals, not otherwise provided for Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...C23C; burners Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...F23D)

|  | B23K |
Note(s) Electric circuits specially adapted for these purposes are dealt with in this sub-class.

|  | B23P |
OTHER WORKING OF METAL; COMBINED OPERATIONS; UNIVERSAL MACHINE TOOLS (arrangements for copying or controlling Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...B23Q)

|  | B23P |
Note(s) Attention is drawn to the notes immediately following the title of class Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...B23. In interpreting the term "combined operations", assembling of parts is not regarded as an operation per se if it is an essential feature of the next metal-working operation. The term "working of metal" and equivalent terms are to be understood as including non-mechanical treatment of metal so far as it is not provided for in any other class such as Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...C21D, Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...C22C, Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...C22F, Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...C23. Thus, combinations of such non-mechanical treatment with other metal-working may be classified in this sub-class. Non-mechanical operations on non-metallic materials are excluded unless such operations are specifically mentioned in this sub-class.

|  | B23Q |
DETAILS, COMPONENTS, OR ACCESSORIES FOR MACHINE TOOLS, e.g. ARRANGEMENTS FOR COPYING OR CONTROLLING (tools of the kind used in lathes or boring machines Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...B23B 27/00); MACHINE TOOLS IN GENERAL CHARACTERISED BY THE CONSTRUCTION OF PARTICULAR DETAILS OR COMPONENTS; COMBINATIONS OR ASSOCIATIONS OF MACHINE TOOLS, NOT DIRECTED TO A PARTICULAR METAL-WORKING RESULT

|  | B23Q |
Note(s) Attention is drawn to the notes immediately following the title of class Fulltext... Hierarchy... Expanded...B23. In this sub-class, the following terms are used with the meanings indicated: "Controlling" means influencing a variable in any way, e.g. changing its direction or its value (including changing it to or from zero), maintaining it constant, limiting its range of variation. "Regulation" means maintaining a variable automatically at a desired value or within a desired range of values. The desired value or range my be fixed, or manually varied, or may vary with time according to a predetermined "programme" or according to variation of another variable. Regulation is a form of control; the term "automatic control" is often used in the art as a synonym for "regulation". [3] In this sub-class, groups designating parts of machine tools are to be understood as covering machine tools characterised by constructional features of such parts.