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MANUFACTURE
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 Indian exports is low compared to developed countries.
There are many reasons for this situation. Indian engineering goods are generally inferior in
design and quality and costly compared to global standards. Further Indian companies often
default as far as delivery dates are concerned. All these deficiencies are due to the fact that the
Indian manufacturing has not kept pace with the developments in other countries. The level
of automation in Indian manufacturing needs improvement. Industrial 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.
Globalization and liberalization of Indian economy has thrown great challenges to Indian
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. No 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 Indian manufacturing
base is steadily shrinking and the market share of manufacturing in gross domestic product
(GDP) declines.
A way out of this situation is more automation. Automation can be of two typeshard
automation and flexible automation. Hard automation is employed in conventional transfer
lines and special purpose machine tools using pneumatic, hydraulic, electro-pneumatic, electro-
hydraulic devices. The productivity of conventional manual machine tools can be considerably
increased by automation using pneumatic control (low cost automation) and hydraulic control.
While such automation practices help to reduce the cost, they are not flexible enough to respond
quickly to product changes. Flexible automation uses computers and microprocessors, which
2 Computer Numerical Control Machines and Computer Aided Manufacture
can be reprogrammed depending on the changing requirements. Hence they are more suitable
in todays manufacturing situation. Of late manufacturing industries increasingly make
use of machinery and equipment which are computer controlled and hence programmable.
Numerically 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.
High Speed
Electro-
Milling of
CAD File Pulse
Hard
Polishing
Workpiece
Another example cited here is that of an exhaust manifold of an automobile. Figure 1.2
shows the CAD model of an exhaust manifold. The reader can see that the geometry of the
external surface and the internal cavity (not shown in the model) are complex. The tools
required for manufacturing the part using sand casting (pattern and core box) can be milled
accurately in a machining center directly using the CAD data. This process not only saves
considerable time but also produces accurate castings.
4 Computer Numerical Control Machines and Computer Aided Manufacture
CAD WORKSTATION
ROBOT FOR
ASSEMBLY
CAD MODEL
MANUFACTURING EQUIPMENT
SCANNING EQUIPMENT
CMM FOR
INSPECTION
Industries like automotive, aircrafts and die and mould use computer aided manufacture
extensively. Computer aided manufacture helps mass customization. The job shops derive the
benefit of both flexibility and increased production rate through computer aided manufacture.
Even transfer lines use CNC today to achieve flexibility and re-configurability in the event of
product changes.
The factors relevant to a manufacturing process are shown in Fig. 1.4. The component to be
processed, the target cost of manufacture and its end use determine the approach to the design
of the manufacturing process. A variety of manufacturing options and tools may be available
for the engineer to manufacture a component. This is usually carried out at the planning
stage. However, the manufacturing engineer has to make appropriate decisions to fine tune
the process depending on the situation. A thorough knowledge of the capability of the machine,
process, process parameters, process- process parameter interaction, tools, and performance of
tools is needed for optimizing the manufacturing operation. Well laid out shop floor practices,
operator safety issues and consideration for environmental aspects are also critical for efficient
management of the manufacturing operations. The output of a manufacturing operation can
be quantified in terms of production rate, yield, cost, quality and throughput.
A systems approach will be helpful to achieve optimum performance, output and efficiency
in a manufacturing operation. Figure 1.5 illustrates the manufacturing process system. The
inputs to the process are both technical as well as management. Target cost, CAD models,
drawings, material data, tool data, work instructions (process plan, inspection plan), tooling
sheets, production rate etc may form part of the technical inputs. The management involvement
constitutes planning, organization, coordination and control. The process requires knowledge
6 Computer Numerical Control Machines and Computer Aided Manufacture
COMPONENT TO BE
PROCESSED END USE
PROCESS OUTPUT
CYCLE TIME
MACHINERY AVAILABLE THROUGHPUT
INSPECTION EQUIPMENT YIELD PART
TOOLING (CUTTING TOOLS, QUALITY COST
FIXTURES) CONSUMABLES PRODUCTIVITY
PROCESS PARAMETERS
MANAGEMENT
PRACTICES
OPERATOR SAFETY
OPERATOR SKILL
FEEDBACK
TECHNICAL
TECHNICAL SCIENTIFIC Cost
DRAWING/MODEL PRINCIPLES Throughput
TARGET COST & (Process Yield
OUTPUT Parameters, Tool Quality
MANAGEMENT Geometry, Cycle Time
PLAN Material Specific Safety
ORGANIZE Information, Productivity
COORDINATE Environmental SYSTEM
CONTROL Factors) Value to Stake
Holders
INTEGRATED CNC
LCD DISPLAY
SERVOMOTOR
(Absolute)
X 0.000
Y 0.000
Z 0.000
SERVO
BUS
I/O MODULE
OPERATOR'S ADAPTOR
FOR
PANEL
MAGNETIC
CABINET
PENDANT
Figure 1.6 shows the elements of a CNC system. The operation unit consists of an integrated
8 Computer Numerical Control Machines and Computer Aided Manufacture
CNC with LCD display, a machine operators panel and an operators pendant (optional, but
essential for large machines). These constitute the man machine interface. Three Servo motors
are shown for three axes feed drives. The spindle motor drives the main spindle. A servo
amplifier amplifies the electrical signals coming through the servo bus from the CNC. The
I/O link connects the operators panel with an additional Servo motor (optional) and control
pendant (optional).
Subsequent chapters deal with the various elements of a CNC machine tool in detail.
Similarly machining centres can carry out various kinds of milling, drilling and allied
operations, boring etc. Turn mill centres used in aerospace industry can turn and mill large
Computer Aided Manufacture 9
components in one machine itself. Now we have fewer classes of machine tools like CNC lathes
and turning centres, machining centres, etc. This has been made possible primarily due to:
The use of multiple tools and automatic tool changing
Positioning of tools using a program
Manipulation of work pieces using the program
Design of more rigid machines
This convergence is illustrated in Fig. 1.8.
TURNING MILLING
DRILLING DRILLING
GROOVING THREADING
THREADING PROFILING
REVIEW QUESTIONS
(1) Why is computer aided manufacture more responsive to product changes?
(2) What are the benefits of computer aided manufacturing?
(3) Why do you recommend computer aided manufacturing?
(4) How does CAM help to reduce manual labour?
(5) Why should production company using computer aided manufacturing equipment operate
more shifts in a day?
10 Computer Numerical Control Machines and Computer Aided Manufacture
(6) How will the product quality be enhanced by replacing manual production by computer
aided manufacture?
(7) Discuss the importance of feedback in a manufacturing operation.
(8) Study a manufacturing process and how the process could be optimized in terms of
cycle time.
(9) What are the technical and system outputs in manufacturing?
(10) Why is a systems approach relevant in manufacturing?
(11) Discuss the advantages of computer aided manufacture with particular reference to the
following:
Cost of the product
Time to market
Consistency in quality
(12) With the aid of a sketch describe the main components of a CNC system.
(13) Discuss how various machining processes could be carried out in a single machine tool
like a machining centre or turning centre.
(14) Explain the concept of multitasking in CNC machine tools.
2 CNC SYSTEMS
CNC system is the brain of the CNC machine. This chapter briefly traces the historical
development of CNC technology and gives a detailed account of CNC systems and reviews
some of the recent developments like open CNC.
2.1 INTRODUCTION
A CNC system is designed around one or more microprocessors and controls all the operation
of the machines as well as interfaces with the external world for communications, remote
diagnosis, program uploading and downloading, program management including storage,
simulation, retrieval and editing. The CNC system carries out all calculations pertaining
to slide movement, controls the operation of main drive and axes feed drives, creates the
alphanumeric and graphics on the display device, manages operator interfaces like alarm
messages and controls the operation of the programmable logic controller.
The development of the machine hardware and the programming technique called
Automatic Positioning of Tools (APT) was undertaken almost simultaneously. It must also be
noted here that another project undertaken at that time at M I T (Whirl-Wind Project) led to
development of Interactive Computer Graphics.
Presently, all the NC machines produced are computer numerical control machines, as the
NC system (or CNC system) is designed and built around one or more microprocessors. CNC
machine tools now form a major part of output of machine tools in advanced countries. Table 2.1
gives the production of CNC machines in India. About 70% of machine tools manufactures in
India were CNC machine tools (1655 machines). Significant among them are listed in Table 2.1.
Table 2.1 Production of CNC Machines in India during 2007-2009
2007-2008 2008-2009
Metal Forming
CNC 304 525.640 201 358.000
Conventional 272 1801.730 273 1878.000
Total Metal-Forming 576 2327.370 474 2236.000
Metal-Cutting
CNC 5181 12253.800 3437 8242.000
Conventional 2673 4438.800 1910 3766.000
Total Metal-Cutting 7854 16692.600 5347 12008.000
Total Metalworking of which: 8430 19019.970 5821 14244.000
CNC is 5485 12779.440 3628 8600.000
Conventional is 2945 6240.530 2483 5644.000
(Courtesy: Indian Machine Tool Manufacturers Association)
INPUT
CNC CNC MACHINE
CNC SYSTEM DRIVE OUTPUT
PROGRAM TOOL
SLIDE POSITION
VELOCITY
FEEDBACK
DEVICE
They are also classified as linear or rotary depending upon their construction. Linear feedback
devices include optical scales, inductosyn etc. Rotary feedback devices are mounted either on
the ball screw or on the motor shaft and measure the slide position indirectly. Rotary encoders,
optical scales, and synchro resolvers are the commonly used rotary feedback devices.
The measured and the target positions are compared and the servo system ensures
that the correct positioning is achieved to make this error nearly zero. Since positioning is
done electronically, it is possible to achieve accuracy and repeatability of the order of 5-10
micrometres even under heavy duty cutting conditions. Two servo loops are incorporated in
feed drive - one for the position and the other for the feed. In addition to this, the selection of
spindle speed is also under servo control. The principle of operation of the servo system used
in a CNC Machine tool is described below.
5V
1.2V
Suppose that for positioning in the Z direction, the tool has to move through a distance of
50 mm. This distance is converted into pulses one pulse for each micrometre (1/1000 of a mm).
For 50 mm distance, a command signal of 50000 pulses is generated by the control system.
The resolution of the system can be improved by a factor called Command Multiply Ratio
(CMR). If the feed is 0.2 mm/rev, and the spindle rpm 1000, the slide velocity required is 1000
0.2 = 200 mm/rev. If the pitch of the ball screw is 10 mm, the rotational speed of the z servo
motor should be 200/10 = 20 rpm. The command signal (+ V) from the velocity control unit
will have a magnitude proportional to the speed required. Plus or minus signal denotes the
rotation in clockwise or anticlockwise direction which is necessary for positive and negative
movements of the table in any axis.
50