The History Of Cnc Engineering
From the cuckoo clock to the computerized numerical control assembly line, the history of automation in cnc precision engineering is a study in the development of machines used as tools and controlling other tools thus the term automation. The jump from automated tools that could reproduce a product went from manually built machines to feeding a computer an abstract code that could produce the machine through automation that would produce a product thus computerized numerical machining.
In the 1800′s, inventors Thomas Blanchard and Christopher Miner Spencer developed lathes, which were an innovation from the cam technology that had been used in music boxes and cuckoo clocks. The work of Jacquard Loom and Charles Babbage in mechanical computers being abstractly programmed was a reality in the 1800′s but their work was not picked up by the machine tool industry.
Using a stylus to trace templates like the Pratt & Whitney “Keller Machine” industrialized automation through the use of hydraulics. General Motors in the 1950′s invented a method of capturing a machinist’s movements and replaying them on command by a machine.
The degree of reliability in the reading by the machine of the abstract code was a problem with developing a computerized numerical control machine. The problem was solved with the invention of the servo that gave right measurement information.
A Selsyn was made by the performance of two servos. A Selsyn could be read by a variety of mechanical and electrical systems to ensure that the right information had been transferred in their products.
The suggestions that Selsyn could be used in machining control came from a Swedish immigrant, Ernst F. W. Alexanderson who was employed by General Electric. General Electric used Alexanderson’s mechanical computer that amplified torque letting big motors to be run by little force in their gun laying system for the United States Navy ships.
The work of John T. Parsons in 1942 gave him the credit for founding the numerical control machine in his efforts to make a helicopter propeller. Needing help on his punch card input machine, Parsons turned to MIT who took his invention and to Parsons surprise, left him out of production.
Later, John Runyon used computer control to make punch tapes on the Whirlwind. In June, 1956, the Air Force proposed a uniform “programming” language for numerical control introducing computerized numerical control.
Tags: Engineering, Manufacturing, History, united states navy ships
