CNC machine tools

The history of numerically controlled ( NC ) machines is more than 60 years old. The idea for this type of equipment originated between 1949 and 1950 at the Massachusetts Institutes of Technology for the US military aviation. The first machines of this type already began operating in 1953 in Boston. At the turn of more than half a century, numerically controlled machine tools have changed significantly in appearance, but their functionality remains the same. In general, they are devices that convert discrete input values in binary and pulse form into corresponding work movements. In the early 1970s, a computer was introduced into them as a control unit for the course of the entire production process in the machine tool system. Since then, we can already speak of CNC (Computer Numerical Control) machines as fully automated ( practically unmanned), converting the logical functions of a set computer program into a specific process of operation execution.

CNC machines are characterized by high production efficiency of the manufactured products, but also by high quality, accuracy and precision of the final products, with much lower expenditures compared to traditional machines. These machines have revolutionized and developed the production process of industrial plants, moving them defacto from a typical manufacturing manufactory into mass-scale production. Their introduction to the manufacturing market resulted in:

- Increasing productivity and production efficiency;

- lowered the production costs of final products by, among other things, reducing defective waste and prefabricated production;

- increased the quality, and thus the precision and accuracy of manufactured products and the repeatability of ordered components;

- has significantly reduced the time to complete the order.

Automating production also means reducing labor costs, as well as bringing in more skilled workers to operate these devices. Currently, numerical control of CNC equipment is developing rapidly. This is due to the huge demand for this type of equipment. This, in turn, induces the creation of better and better devices and the development of their technology. Dynamically developing computerization and automation causes, better and better technical solutions of CNC as well as their control systems, and thus a significant increase in quality and knowledge.

Sylvia MS