1.

1 INTRODUCTION
Manufacturing is the activity of producing components, products, and systems and therefore is
one of the most important engineering activities. The economic prosperity of a nation is directly
linked to the manufacturing capabilities of the nation. The gross national product of the nation
depends to a large extent on the output from its manufacturing industries. The prosperity of
the nation and the quality of life of the people depend on the manufacturing capability. Any
technological advancement requires corresponding improvement in manufacturing know how.
Engineers and economists give hence manufacturing considerable importance.
The share of manufacturing in the ndian exports is low compared to developed countries.
There are many reasons for this situation. ndian engineering goods are generally inferior in
design and quality and costly compared to global standards. !urther ndian companies often
default as far as delivery dates are concerned. All these deficiencies are due to the fact that the
ndian manufacturing has not kept pace with the developments in other countries. The level
of automation in ndian manufacturing needs improvement. ndustrial processes which rely
more on manual labour are generally inefficient, costly, error"prone, and slow to respond to
market changes and are invariably technologically inferior to their counterparts in advanced
countries. The products manufactured by companies with low levels of automation do not have
consistency as far as quality and performance are concerned.
#lobali$ation and liberali$ation of ndian economy has thrown great challenges to ndian
manufacturing industries. Till a decade ago, they had a captive market and could sell what they
could produce at the prices they quote. Today the situation has changed a lot. %o longer they
have a captive market. Their products have to compete with superior products, which are lower
in cost and higher in quality and performance. The result is that the ndian manufacturing
base is steadily shrinking and the market share of manufacturing in gross domestic product
&#'() declines.
A way out of this situation is more automation. Automation can be of two types*hard
automation and flexible automation. +ard automation is employed in conventional transfer
lines and special purpose machine tools using pneumatic, hydraulic, electro"pneumatic, electrohydraulic
devices. The productivity of conventional manual machine tools can be considerably
increased by automation using pneumatic control &low cost automation) and hydraulic control.
,hile such automation practices help to reduce the cost, they are not flexible enough to respond
quickly to product changes. !lexible automation uses computers and microprocessors, which
1 COMPUTER AIDED
MANUFACTURE
- Computer Numerical Control Machines and Computer Aided Manufacture
can be reprogrammed depending on the changing requirements. +ence they are more suitable
in today.s manufacturing situation. /f late manufacturing industries increasingly make
use of machinery and equipment which are computer controlled and hence programmable.
%umerically controlled machines, coordinate measuring machines and robots which are used
in engineering manufacture are examples of such equipment. The manufacturing activity
which uses computer controlled equipment is called computer aided manufacturing.
1.2 COMPUTER AIDED MANUFACTURE
0omputer aided manufacture covers a wide spectrum of activities. At the lowest level,
automation of individual processes or a group of processes can be achieved by microprocessors,
programmable logic controllers &(10) and micro"controllers. 0omputers or microprocessors
can control manufacturing equipment like machine tools, welding machines, assembly
machines etc. The type of control which is used in machine tools is called computer numerical
control &0%0). 0%0 also may involve the use of programmable logic controller &(10). A
flexible"manufacturing cell may consist of one or more machine tools in which a higher level
of computer controlled automation is built in. !lexible inspection systems using co"ordinate
measuring machines &0MM), 0%0 0MM.s and computer vision systems used in flexible
manufacturing are also part of computer aided manufacturing. 2obots and computer vision
are extensively used in materials handling, welding, painting, inspection etc which are also
manufacturing activities. !lexible manufacturing systems integrate all the above together to
form an integrated manufacturing system.
1.3 ADVANTAGES OF COMPUTER AIDED MANUFACTURE
The advantages of computer aided manufacture can be many. 3ome of them are briefly
mentioned below4
&i) 0omputer aided manufacture reduces manual labour. There is a misconception that the
ndian labour is cheap. This is true in terms of per hour cost. 5ut by world standards
the ndian labour is less productive and hence are more costly compared to labour in
other countries. Therefore the ndian products which involve manual labour need not
necessarily be cheaper.
&ii) Manual work lacks consistency whereas computer controlled or programmable equipment
is always consistent as far as output and quality are concerned.
&iii) There is less re6ection and rework. 2e6ection if at all may be due to uncontrolled
technological parameters like material variability, process changes, wear of tools etc.
&iv) (roduct changes can be easily incorporated.
&v) 'elivery of the products can be confidently assured.
&vi) The manufacturing equipment can accept the 0A' data directly. !or example, a 0%0
machine control system can generate the manufacturing program using a 0A' file with
a limited number of instructions by the operator at the machine console itself. 3imilarly
a rapid prototyping machine can produce a component directly from 0A' data.
&vii) The time elapsed between the conceptuali$ation of a product and its reali$ation and
subsequent introduction to the market is called product development lead time. The leadtime
in manufacture is considerably reduced in computer aided manufacture.
Computer Aided Manufacture 7
&viii) 0omputer aided manufacture helps"to achieve higher production rates with less labour.
&ix) 0ost savings can accrue due to increased manufacturing efficiency.
&x) Enterprise resource planning &E2() operations like planning, process design, and
inventory control, scheduling, machine loading, assembly and shipping are also
controlled by computers today. Thus computer aided manufacture helps to integrate all
the operations of a manufacturing company.
&xi) 3ince the production rate is more, fewer machines and less factory space is needed for a
given production volume.
1.4 TYPICAL EXAMPLES
Many examples can be quoted to demonstrate the superior advantage of computer aided
manufacture when compared with manual manufacture. A typical example is that of a plastic
in6ection molding die. 5efore the widespread introduction of 0AM, dies were produced in a die
sinking machine followed by grinding and manual polishing. The process was not only time
consuming but required several iterations and modifications to obtain the desired product.
Today dies are milled directly using the data from the 0A' model. Advanced features like
%8253 surfaces and high speed 0%0 systems enable even very complex surfaces to be
reali$ed accurately. +igh speed 0%0 machining centers can mill the cavity on the dies in the
hard condition of the die and have practically eliminated the need for a secondary polishing
operation because of its capability to produce excellent finish in the die cavity. f the finish is to
be improved further, the die manufacturers can use 0%0 E'Ms with micro pulsing capability
which can produce excellent finish. The process change due to the introduction of 0AM and the
time saving are illustrated in !ig. 9.9.
1.6 COMPUTER AIDED MANUFACTURING TODAY
The steps involved in manufacturing in a typical machine shop are graphically represented
in !ig.9.7. Much of the new designs are presently carried out using computers. 3ometimes
components are reengineered from existing components or parts using reverse engineering
concepts. Mechanical or laser scanning can capture the geometric data of a part for reverse
engineering. This point cloud data can then be converted to a 0A' model using appropriate
software. The 0%0 program to run the machine tool or the production equipment can be
developed from the 0A' model using programming software. /ptionally a gantry loader or a
robot can do the loading and unloading of the component. The manufactured part is inspected
using a coordinate measuring machine &0MM). The programme required for operating the
0%0 0MM can be created directly from the 0A' file. Today software packages are available to
manage the entire product life cycle. Even work piece handling can be entirely automated right
from raw material storage to final shipping. Thus the manual effort involved in manufacture
can be reduced to a minimum using computer"aided manufacture.
Many of the technologies used in the machines are closely related to computer numerical
control &0%0). 0%0 machines are therefore very vital to the manufacturing today. /ne of
the interesting factors evident from the illustration in !ig. 9.7 is the seamless data transfer
possible from design to manufacture. 0A' data can be used to create 0%0 programs as well as
programs for the inspection of the component. The data can also be used to program robots.
1.7 SIGNIFICANCE OF CNC IN MANUFACTURING
0%0 has significantly impacted engineering manufacture today. This is evident from the
replacement of conventional machines by 0%0 machines in many of the machine shops. Most
of the manufacturers of machine tools have switched over to the production of 0%0 machines
from conventional machine tools. 0%0 machines constitute a ma6or portion of machine tools
manufactured today. %ext chapter reviews the development of 0%0 as well as some basic
0%0 concepts.
1.8 ORGANIZATION OF A CNC MACHINE TOOL SYSTEM
A 0%0 Machine tool consists of4
:: Mechanical structure consisting of base, column, slides, work table etc.
:: Mechanical drive components like main spindle, ball screws, linear guideways, etc.
:: Auxiliary elements like automatic tool changer, tool maga$ine, tool offset device,
measuring probes, coolant system, lubricating system, pallet changer, limit switches,
proximity switches, alarm indicator, chip conveyor etc.
:: Main spindle motor, axis feed drive 3ervo motors, drive amplifiers, input;output modules
and amplifiers, machine operator.s pendant, machine operator.s panel and integrated
0%0 with 10' display.
:: Electrical accessories.
1.9 CONVERGENCE OF MACHINE TOOLS
Manufacturing engineers are familiar with various basic machining processes like turning,
boring, milling, drilling, grinding etc. Manual machines are generally designed to primarily cater
to any one of these processes. !or example, lathes are designed for turning and allied operations
like thread cutting, drilling along the spindle axis, grooving and knurling though processing
engineers may carry out many other operations with suitable tooling or attachments. A boring
machine can be used for milling and drilling in addition to boring. A milling machine can be
used for a variety of other machining operations other than 6ust milling. Many axi"symmetric
components may have off centre holes, milled features etc. The practice before the advent of
0%0 machines involved carrying out the primary machining in one machine and moving the
component to other machines for subsequent operations. !or example, a component with off centre
holes and a milled feature as shown in !ig. 9.< is machined first in a lathe and the subsequent
machining carried out in a drilling machine and milling machine for drilling off centre holes and
slot respectively. ,ith the development of turning centres, all these operations could be done in
machine without set up changes, thereby increasing productivity and accuracy.