In machining where did the term kellering come from?

Answer 1

Keller was one of many companies that designed and built tracer mills to mill 2 and 3 dimensional surfaces by tracing a model with a stylus that was approximately the same shape and size of the milling cutter. The term Kellering was used interchangeably with the term "tracing" (The term "tracing" was was a much more commonly used than "kellering"). Tracing was done in the mold and die industry to create hard tooling from models. To rough out a workpiece the operator choose a stylus similar in shape but larger in size and length to the cutter that was in the spindle. The operator then "roughed out" the part. Stock was left approximately equal to the difference of the stylus and the cutter. Matching the stylus exactly to the cutter allowed finish machining. Smaller cutters/stylus were used to "pick out" the corners. Tracing progressed through the years from simply mechanical tracing (muscle power) to hydraulics to electronics. Eventually, with the advent of NC machines and 3D cad systems tracing (or kellering) has almost disappeared I have to answer this question for a mid-term, here is what I could dig up. A Kellering machine is basically a mill with an electronic "tracer" that follows the shape and contours of a master form or mold to reproduce a fairly accurate copy. From what I gathered, it is similar to haveing a key made, where as they use your key as a master to carve out the little nooks and contours into a blank key. It was used quite a bit in the automoblile industry for streamlining. They would use a master form, usually made of wood, and the Kelling Machine would trace the contours of the form to make a die in the shape of a car door or car roof, which would be used to stamp out a whole line of car body parts. The process was created by Sydney Keller, and the process became known as Kellering. All I need to know now is when.