CAM/CNC

IND2. Students apply safety practices in the lab and on worksites. 

IND4. Students apply and adapt appropriate workplace behaviors and characteristics to prepare for careers.

DFT2. Students understand the effective use of engineering design equipment. 

DFT3. Students understand measurement systems as they apply to engineering design. 

DFT5. Students know various object-editing techniques and CAD programs

EGD6. Students understand industrial engineering processes, including the use of tools and  equipment, methods of measurement and quality assurance. 

EGD9. Students understand the effective use of engineering technology equipment. 

MNU2. Students understand how materials can be processed through the use of machine tools, such as milling, drilling, turning and shaping machines and forming equipment, such as  dies, presses and rolls. 

MNU7. Students understand various machining and forming automated manufacturing systems,  tool design, design for manufacturing, flexible manufacturing systems and materials resource planning. 

Computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) is the use of software to create a machine language or code to control machines and tools to create a work piece. This is not the only definition for CAM, but it is the most common. CAM may also refer to the use of a computer to assist in all operations of a manufacturing plant, including planning, management, transportation and storage. 

Its primary purpose is to create a faster production process and components and tooling with more precise dimensions and material consistency, CAM is a subsequent computer-aided process after computer-aided design (CAD), as the model generated in CAD and inputted into CAM software, which then controls the machine tools. CAM is used in many schools alongside Computer-Aided Design (CAD) to create objects.

1. Design/CAD - translating it into the computer - Solidworks

2. CAM - Converting into machine language - HSMWorks, spectraCAM

3. CNC Control - Directing the machines motion - CNCBase

4. Machining - Building the part - Lathe, Mill, 3D Printer, Laser

Computer Numerical Control (CNC) is the automated control of machining tools (drilling, boring, milling, & lathing) by means of a computer. An NC machine transforms a piece of material (metal, plastic, wood, ceramic, or composite) according to instructions from a computer programmed to precise specifications. 

CNC is a major advance in machining, and is a vast improvement over non-computer type machining that requires manual control, by hand wheels or levers, or mechanical control by fabricated pattern guides. In modern CNC systems, the design of a mechanical part and its manufacturing program is highly automated. The part's mechanical dimensions are defined using CAD software, and then translated into manufacturing files by computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) software. The resulting files are transformed (by the "post processor") into the specific commands or codes (language) necessary for a automated machine to produce the work piece/part, and then are loaded into the CNC machine. 

The programming language generated from the CAM software is then used to control the machine tool(s) is referred to within the industry as the G Code. This G-code tells the tool how to make something by telling the motors where to move, how fast to move, and what path to follow.