Tracing procedure course

The tracing, also called tracing, is an operation by which the engraving lines that circumscribe the piece once finished are brought back on a piece (raw or semi-finished). The purpose of the operation is to highlight the parts still to be removed, as well as to ensure that the blank has sufficient dimensions to make the finished shape. The term is also used to describe the set of lines shown on the piece. The operation is done before cold mechanical processing. During hot working, the piece can deform, making any tracing unnecessary. The accuracy of this operation is normally limited by the thickness of the incision that creates the tracing: in order to be visible it must be at least a few hundredths of a millimeter thick. For this purpose it is advisable to pay attention to the sharpening of the points intended for marking. Making tracings with higher precision only makes sense if you plan to work under the microscope. Basic notions of drawing and mechanical measurements are necessary for the correct execution of the tracing. The tracing can take place in the plane and in the space. In the plane, when the operation is performed on a single face (for example in sheets) in a very similar way to the execution of a technical drawing, while in space, when the operation involves different faces of the piece, in this case it requires the use of a reference plane where to rest with the piece and the tools for scribing. Machine tracing is performed with the aid of machine tools previously equipped with tracing points, or more rarely, by special machines with Cartesian coordinates. It is particularly useful when complex designs need to be drawn on flat surfaces.