FACULTY OF ENGINEERING

MSc ADVANCED PRODUCT DESIGN

MNM201 - INTEGRATED CAD/CAM

J. A. GARCIA

THE FUTURE OF CAD/CAM

2010/2011

SUBMITTED BY:

ARUN REDDY ALTE - K0961306

SANTHEEP KUMAR PAULRAJ - K0959118

DECLARATION OF PLAGIARISM:

I declare that I have fully read and understood the Kingston University’s definition of
plagiarism.

I declare that all references contained in this coursework have been correctly cited
and the original authors are properly acknowledged.

I declare that all additional work presented in this coursework is our own.

Arun Reddy Alte (K0961306)

Santheep Kumar Paulraj (K0959118)

2
Table of Contents:

1. ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................4

2. INTRODUCTION .....................................................................................................5

3. FUNDAMENTALS OF CAD/CAM ............................................................................6

3.1. COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN (CAD)................................................................6

3.2. COMPUTER AIDED MANUFACTURING (CAM) .............................................6

4. HISTORY OF CAD/CAM .........................................................................................7

5. CAD/CAM IN CERAMICS INDUSTRY ....................................................................8

5.1. TRADITIONAL DEVELOPMENT METHOD .....................................................8

5.2. PRESENT DEVELOPMENT METHOD WITH CAD/CAM.................................9

5.3. FUTURE OF CAD/CAM INCERAMICS .......................................................... 10

6. FUTURE OF CAD/CAM IN GENERAL .................................................................. 12

7. DISCUSSION ........................................................................................................ 13

8. CONCLUSION....................................................................................................... 14

9. LIST OF REFERENCES........................................................................................ 15

3
1. ABSTRACT:
Computers play a major role in human life. This assignment
paper is focused on a computer based technology called CAD/CAM, which is
marking its step in various industries performing the design and production
activities. This paper also covers the fundamentals, history and future of
CAD/CAM. The development of CAD/CAM over decades and its various
advantages in the present engineering field is also briefed. In specific the
introduction and impact of CAD/CAM in ceramics industry is taken as the key
topic which includes the traditional development, present development and
future development. The advantages and benefits of implementing the
CAD/CAM along with Rapid Prototyping process in ceramics industry have
been explained. Apart from this, the developments and additional features to
be incorporated in CAD/CAM software’s to satisfy the customer needs at
present and in future has been discussed. Also the future trends and
breakthrough of CAD/CAM in general is covered.

4
2. INTRODUCTION:

In present scenario there exists a tough competition for manufactured

products in the world market. The expectation level of product quality and
reliability among the industry and consumers are growing higher. Due to this
global competition there is an increasing pressure on major companies to
introduce new products and processes to the market as early as possible
without compromising the product quality and performance. To overcome this
shorter lead time, the processes involved in the product design, testing,
manufacturing and marketing have been squeezed, both in terms of time and
material resources. This situation has led to the rapid development and
advancement in new technologies usually involving the computers. The
decrease in the cost of computers and development of various features
assisting the engineering works using computers has entirely changed the
flow of factory works from the traditional way. CAD/CAM (Computer-Aided
Design / Computer-Aided Manufacturing) is one of the major technologies
which are considered to be the base for all emerging technologies in the field
of design and manufacturing. Followed by the evolution of CAD/CAM, the
other technologies which are growing higher in the product development
process are Rapid Prototyping (RP) and Reverse Engineering (RE). The
current state of these technologies are almost stabilised by fulfilling the major
requirements for a modern automated factory. But still there is no end point for
any technology and innovation, so the future trends and the next revolution of
these technologies are nearing. In the following pages the fundamentals,
history, functions, applications and the future of CAD/CAM and RP are briefed.
Though the application of these technologies has marked rapid strides in
various industries, this speculative paper focuses its integration in the
Ceramics Industry to discuss about the existing usage and future
development.

5
3. FUNDAMENTALS OF CAD/CAM:

3.1 Computer Aided Design (CAD) is a general term that describes

the use of computer technology for designing an object, which is either virtual
(or) real.

CAD can also be defined as “A tool used to speed up (or) eliminate the
efforts by engineers within the design/analysis cycle” (Mish, et al, 1999).

The CAD is operated as software which consists of programs to

implement the computer graphics and application programs on the system to
make ease the engineering functions of the respective company. This
application program varies for different companies based on their products
and manufacturing methods. Due to this factor there was a need to develop
different CAD systems as per the individual firm requirements. Similar to the
manual drafting of engineering drawings the CAD software output also
contains all the information including dimensions, tolerances and
manufacturing processes depending on the application (Groover, 1984).

3.2 Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) is concerned with the

integration of computer system into the manufacturing process with the aid of
software which generates the Numerical Code (NC) for machining and various
other processes. Apart from assisting in manufacturing, CAM is also used to
support the process planning, production scheduling, material requirements
planning and shop floor control (Groover, 1984). The primary objective of the
CAM is to increase the production rate, precision manufacture of the
components and tooling’s and material consistency (minimizing the raw
material wastage). The model generated in the CAD software is taken as the
input for CAM software, which then generates the codes. These codes are fed
into the CNC machines to manufacture the real product designed in the CAD.
At present the CAD software’s are designed in such a way that it is easily
integrated to the CAM.

6
4. HISTORY OF CAD/CAM:

Prior to the invention of CAD/CAM technology, every stage in the field

of engineering design i.e. calculation, product design and drafting was manual.
These stages were carried out using pencil & paper and the final outcome is
stored as blueprints for manufacturing purpose. This traditional way of
approach for a product design was a time taking process resulting in very less
production rate. The changes in the design (or) analysing the failure of a
design at any point consumes more time, ultimately affecting the production
time and launch of the product in market.

In 350 B.C. a piece of writing on mathematics ‘The Elements’ by a

Greek mathematician Euclid, elaborated many of the demands and axioms
which stood as the foundation for Euclidian geometry. This serves as the basic
platform on which present CAD software systems are built. Euclid was often
known as the Father of Geometry.

A milestone of research was encountered in computer graphics after

2300 years of Euclid invention. In 1960, Ivan Sutherland invented the first
design program for industrial use called sketch pad. The sketch pad is CAD
software which allows the designer to create drawings directly on the
computer monitor by using light pen. This tool was used only for 2D drawings
and drafting. The first CAM system was created in 1957 itself named as
PRONTO, a numerical control programming tool by Dr. Patrick J. Han Ratty.
He is most often referred as the Father of CAD/CAM.

During this period the CAD/CAM technology was started spreading all
over the world. Automobile sectors were the first to follow this technology
especially for designing their vehicle bodies. Later on this technology was
adopted by other sectors too. CAM software’s were qualified by manual
programming oriented and APT (Automatically Programmed Tool) based
systems (Alan, 2001). This evolution of CAD/CAM has rapidly changed the
industrial sectors and improved the product quality, accuracy and production
rate. At present there are many CAD/CAM software’s which are used in
various industries. This software’s are developed with an ease for installation
in the computer and provides much flexibility for the designer to use the tool in
design and manufacturing a product. The CAD/CAM software’s which are very
7
widely used now are CATIA, UNIGRAPHICS, PRO-E, SOLIDWORKS, IDEAS,
INVENTOR. Now the CAD/CAM technology is moving in a constant path of
fine-tuning the early innovations to improve the efficiency and make it user
friendly.

Figure 1 – DIFFERENT CAD/CAM SOFTWARE’S (Lee, 2007)

The above figure shows the different CAD/CAM software’s used in

various industries for 3D modelling.

5. CAD/CAM IN CERAMICS INDUSTRY:

5.1 Traditional development method:

In traditional development method, the model is built based on

the hand sketches. The master model is created in clay to build a plaster cast.
For producing a plaster production mould, a polyurethane mould is created
from the plaster cast. Using this, clay products are produced in a small series.
Then the product undergoes a firing process to identify the need for design
modifications. This traditional method has following drawbacks,

Restriction in freedom of form (or) shape of the product.

Trial and error method to identify the feasibility of producing the

designed product in the proposed form.
8

Design assessment purely based on a scale model.

5.2 Present development method with CAD/CAM:

The introduction of CAD/CAM, Rapid Prototyping and Tooling

offers many advantages in the present product development method. The
restriction in the freedom of form for designers is overcome by using the
CAD’s extended features in the initial design phase itself. The changes in
design and evaluation are made quickly. A demo model is must in product
development for discussing and assessing the shape, proportions and
functionality of the designed product. Creating the demo models to true scale
with the aid of CAD/CAM and Rapid Prototyping techniques takes less time
and simple too. The term rapid prototyping is the construction of physical part
as layers by using the additive technology of manufacturing. This process is
carried out with various materials like wax, paper or thermoplastics depending
on the application. The 3D cad model converted into a STL file (Structural
Triangulation Language) serves as the input for RP machines. In this STL
format the smooth curved surfaces are depicted on triangles. To achieve
greater accuracy in the prototype model the triangles are kept smaller. (Chua
C.K, et al, 2003)

Figure 2 – CERAMIC MODEL USING CAD/CAM (www.treadwaygallery.com)

Tooling plays the major role in this development method. The CAD design of
the tool is developed from the products 3D CAD design. Depending on various

9
factors like manufacturing techniques, geometry and quantity of product the
decision is made for developing the master tool in a best way.

5.3 Future of CAD/CAM in Ceramics:

The introduction of CAD/CAM in ceramics industry has created a

much sophisticated environment for the designers to bring their innovations as
a real product. Many ceramic industries have raised some requirements to be
included in the CAD/CAM tools. One such requirement is to print the
decorations using CAD/CAM on the curved surfaces. At present the
decorations are embossed in a flat plane, which serves as the base for
transfer. Without deformation transferring a smooth curved surface to a flat
surface is highly impossible. Apart from this, some industries even desired to
modify the existing decorations to suit it for new models. For the purpose of
silkscreen printing technique, manipulating the decoration to make positives
and negatives is another requirement. The CAD/CAM software’s with these
features are on its way to the market. The products which are not imaginable
to be manufactured by the traditional method will become very simple with few
mouse clicks by the ongoing developments in CAD/CAM. With current
advantages CAD can be very well used as a tool for marketing as the changes
in product design can be incorporated as per the customer’s requirement in a
very short time. Moreover the design tool can be broadened with computing
programs which forecast the decorations and amount of shrinkage during the
process of firing and drying. (McDonald J A, et al, 2001)

Figure 3 – SPRING VASE UNDER DEVELOPMENT USING CAD/CAM & RP (www.brianadamsceramics.com)

10
 The CAD/CAM features not only provide the profit in time and cost, it
also gives a quality tool and end product. The Rapid Prototyping technology
which is used in many ceramic industries to manufacture the end product have
many limitations which push this back in many leading industries. The
limitations which currently exist in Rapid Prototyping technology are output
from machine, material cost, accuracy, production speed and surface finish. If
this process could be developed further for the product manufacture in a
robust way, then it will have a striking impact in the field of design and
manufacturing. The major areas that will drive forward the growth of Rapid
Prototyping are concept modelling and Rapid Manufacturing & Tooling
(RM&T). The reason for replacing the concept modelling over higher version
of RP is due to its cost effectiveness and speed. Concept modeller allows the
designers to start and finish the prototype in a day (or) two. Though there are
many flaws and drawbacks in the concept modelling, advanced technology
and design provide the possible path for a good future. Rapid Prototyping in
manufacturing is the base for Rapid manufacturing & tooling (RM&T).

This is a process “that uses the RP technology to produce a template,

which is then used in manufacturing processes like moulding (or) casting”
(Leong K.F, 2003)

The potential benefits received from Rapid Manufacturing are reduced

tooling cost, ability to design and manufacture a product with complex
geometry, feasibility to manufacture the graded materials, flexibility in
manufacturing leading to minimum storage for parts. At present the existing
RP machines can be used for rapid manufacturing but the new machine
designs are required in the long run. The other future developments in RP are
ease of use, standardization of systems, prototype quality and building speed,
ease of post - processing and improvement of material properties. The major
change that needs to be incorporated in rapid manufacturing is increase in the
construction speed. (Ryall C J, et al, 2001). All these future trends and
development in the discussed technologies are mainly based on the evolution
of CAD/CAM. Ultimately, this proves that the CAD/CAM has served as the
base platform for developing a computer-integrated robotic factory in the mere
future.

11
6. FUTURE OF CAD/CAM IN GENERAL:

For quite long-time, an outstanding CAD/CAM innovation has not taken

place. This gives a hint that a rapid change in the revolution of CAD/CAM is
not far away. Despite multiple features and advantages available in 3D
CAD/CAM, many designers still prefer 2D designs. Due to this reason, recent
innovations like animated ‘Walk-through’ are still less utilized in many fields.
This is an animated technique which allows the designers to take a visual tour
in and around the model and glance it from various angles. The success key
for CAD/CAM growth in the global market is that it provides an additional
function of enhancing the collaboration between various departments in a
company. As a response for this, the CAD/CAM marketers integrated the tools
that assist in bringing together the different departments very closely than
before and in data sharing, which is given high priority in many developed and
developing companies.

In special, the solid modelling with CAD/CAM offers more flexibility to

the design engineers like naturalistic views of the product and allows the
integration for analysis very easily. CAD/CAM provides the manufacturing
units with the capability of ‘art-to-part’, which is nothing but the design from
concept stage to tooling is completely digitalized. With the implementation of
this CAD/CAM digital process, the manufactures gain an effective interaction
between the departments, produce quality products and launch the product to
market in a short duration. Another future trend of CAD/CAM development is
the exchange of information in the non-CAD format like Adobe’s PDF,
Autodesk’s DWF and Solid Work’s EDRW. This trend is driven by many
industries in order to avoid the theft of information and data loss. In addition to
the various improvements in CAD, the CAM is getting automated to high
extend like the cutting parameters, tools and tool paths are selected
automatically giving less work to the programmers (Katrina, 2005).

The power to merge CAD/CAM, with FEA & simulation accessibility and
knowledge management requires to be fully adopted. This is one of the areas
a breakthrough will occur in future CAD/CAM. At present the research and
development in CAD/CAM is one step ahead of the user requirements.

12
7. DISCUSSION:

In the growing global market and competition, the developments of

technologies are purely based on the customer requirements rather than the
resources available. The evolution of CAD/CAM is a best example for this.
The need for developments in CAD/CAM from the traditional practice is to
improve the quality of product, reduce the production cost, reduce the
production time and make ease of the manufacturing process. The new
ideas/concepts, innovative designs and creations in various field by the
designers brings the need for development and up gradation of the CAD/CAM
technology in regular interval of time. This development is considered as the
remarkable achievement in the history of mankind.

On the other hand this rapid development and competition has

increased pressure on the industries regarding the huge investments over the
CAD/CAM software’s and highly sophisticated computerised machines. For
satisfying the customer needs, many industries have to take up this
investment regardless whether the end product is successful in the market (or)
not. Though the cost of computers and its related parts are decreased before
many years, the final package of the software’s and machines are of high cost.
With the increased demand for sophistication the system developers increase
their market value. In addition the demand for man power in the field of
manufacturing is getting reduced due to the automation of factory, which is
leading to a stage of unemployment in some sectors.

13
8. CONCLUSION:

The need for development in technology is not only associated with the
customer requirements. Every time the change (or) update of any system
rectifies the flaws and drawbacks in the previous version. It is clear that
the available technology in the market is not 100% perfect and stabilised.
One or the other features need to be added at every stage of requirement.
This rapid development in CAD/CAM is unimaginable, since it took place
in a short duration. There is nothing called impossible in the field of design
and manufacturing with the current trends of CAD/CAM technology. But
still there is a huge demand for the updates in the existing systems for the
future designs. At present it can be assumed that there is nothing more to
develop than the existing technologies, but predicting the future is always
a hardship. There may be a massive breakthrough or revolution of
CAD/CAM than what it has created so far.

14
9. LIST OF REFERENCES:

GROOVER, M.P AND ZIMMERS, E.W (1984) CAD/CAM COMPUTER

AIDED DESIGN AND MANUFACTURING. PRENTICE HALL
PUBLICATION.

HAIGH, M.J (1985) AN INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER AIDED

DESIGN AND MANUFACTURING.

KYRAN D. MISH AND JOSEPH MELLO (1995) MECHANICAL

ENGINEERING HANDBOOK.

CHUA C.K, LEONG K.F AND LIM C.S (2003) RAPID PROTOTYPING
PRINCIPLES AND APPLICATIONS.

McDONALD, J.A, RYALL, C.J AND WIMPENNY, D.I (2001) RAPID

PROTOTYPING CASEBOOK.

ALAN CHRISTMAN (2001) EVOLUTION OF CAM SOFTWARE -

CAD/CAM OUTLOOK. AVAILABLE:
http://www.cncinformation.com/cam-software-cam-computer-aided-
machining-soft/evolution-of-cam. LAST ACCESSED 12/02/10

WEBSITE (2004) CAD SOFTWARE-HISTORY OF CAD CAM.

AVAILABLE: http://www.cadazz.com/cad-software-history-2000-2004.htm.
LAST ACCESSED 10/02/10.

THOMAS NET NEWS (2001). AVAILABLE:

http://news.thomasnet.com/IMT/archives/2001/02/cadcam_past_pre.ht
ml

THOMAS NET NEWS (2005). AVAILABLE:

http://news.thomasnet.com/IMT/archives/2005/01/the_future_of_c.html

15