subject: The Future Of Production Machining [print this page] No-one working in a factory during the Industrial Revolution could have imagined the world of engineering today. While those factories still did machining, milling and grinding, similar to today, the sophisticated processes such as 5 axis machining that are used now would leave those early workers amazed.
With computers came advances in the machining industry which created further automation. Industry was previously reliant on machine operators with high level skills who were capable of making manual adjustments to works in order to progress them. The industry progressed from old computer technology through to microprocessors, which all played a role in the development of CNC machines. The result was improved performance and the ability to add extra functions to increase operational precision.
These advances, however, are not without their challenges as shown hereunder:
> The CNC industry itself is not driving improvements that are specific to their needs. Rather, they follow the general-purpose computing technology and adopt low-cost solutions applicable to PCs.
> The adoption of mass storage at the machine itself is not favourable due to the vibrational shaking and mechanical reverberation of the machines.
> The mass user markets use Flash memory, along with CNC, however CNC is obliged to work around the number of times a Flash memory cell can be rewritten to. This is not an issue for consumer market use, but is a large problem for a production machine shop.
Increased processing power is always in demand, and as the computer industry continues developing that processing power, its application for CNC machines will increase. The following are some of the advancements we are already seeing:
> Automation of the translations between CAD and CAM data files, which removes a monotonous and fault prone process previously carried out by human programmers.
> Facility to collect data during the actual machining process. This requires large amounts of memory to do the calculations in real time that were previously done by machinists.
> For safety, as the CNC computer constantly tracks its position, speed and direction of motion. If the process is interrupted, this information must be able to be securely stored.
As end-consumer use of SSDs (also known as flash drives) continues to increase, CNC applications will follow within that trend for their memory needs, however as previously noted in this article, the issue of the limited number of rewrites is still an existing issue. Alternative SSD technologies, while much more suitable on technical grounds, are not at this stage cost competitive.
Other microprocessor advancements being closely monitored are:
> the use of multicore chips which have several independent processors in one package - high performance with reduced power supply needs, reducing the amount of heat generated by the CNC machines. The possibilities of this technology are only just being recognised.
> Microcontrollers which are single devices with built-in external peripherals. Those with multiple processor cores, advanced communications capabilities and display drivers are especially suited to CNC use.
Precision engineering in the future will need these new technologies to advance to a level where they can be fully utilised. Although great advancements have been made, the computer technologies available at this time are still in an evolutionary process and there is no currently complete solutions available. Precision machining companies are monitoring developments to be ready to take advantage of the next evolutionary move.
