Numerical Control (NC) Machine Tools
Numerical Control (NC) refers to
the method of controlling the manufacturing operation by means of directly
inserted coded numerical instructions into the machine tool. It is important to
realize that NC is not a machining method, rather, it is a concept of machine
control. Although the most popular applications of NC are in machining, NC can
be applied to many other operations, including welding, sheet metalworking,
riveting, etc.
The major advantages of NC over conventional methods of
machine control are as follows:
Higher precision
Machining of complex three-dimensional shapes
Better quality
Higher productivity
Multi-operational machining
Low operator qualification
Types of NC systems
Machine controls are divided into three groups,
Traditional numerical control (NC);
Computer numerical control (CNC);
Distributed numerical control (DNC).
The original numerical control machines were referred to as NC
machine tool. They have
“hardwired” control,
whereby control is accomplished through the use of punched paper (or plastic)
tapes or cards. Tapes tend to wear, and become dirty, thus causing misreadings.
Many other problems arise from the use of NC tapes, for example the need to
manual reload the NC tapes for each new part and the lack of program editing
abilities, which increases the lead time. The end of NC tapes was the result of
two competing developments, CNC and DNC.
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