Computer-Aided Engineering for Manufacture [Paperback]

The development of the 'factory of the future' by major international corporations such as General Motors, IBM, Westinghouse, etc now involves many practising engineers. This book is an attempt to identify and describe some of the building blocks required for computer aided engineering for manufacture. It begins with numerical control and the infrastructure required for the automation of individual 'islands' within existing factories. Computer aided design and computer aided manufacture are then discussed in detail together with their integration to improve manufacturing efficiency and flexibility. Robotics and flexible manufacturing systems are examined, as well as the management of these systems required for production optimization. Finally, there is an overview of the relatively new field of artificial intelligence, which is being increasingly used in most aspects of computer aided engineering for manufacture. There are many topics which could have been included or expanded upon with advantage, but the authors have attempted to strike a balance so that the reader can obtain the maximum usefulness from a reasonably concise volume.1 Introduction.- Evolution of computer aided manufacture (CAM).- Automation and CAM.- 2 Numerical control.- History of numerical control.- The conventional numerical control concept.- programming.- Real-time control of machine tools.- 3 Computer technology.- Computer assisted programming.- Automatic programmed tooling (APT).- Adaptive control.- Machinability data banks.- 4 Communications networking.- Conventional ways of connecting terminals.- Uses of computer networks.- Local area networks (LANs).- Wide area networks (WANs).- Network architecture: protocols and standards.- Data transmission.- 5 Computer process control monitoring.- Information provided by monitoring.- Supervisory computer control.- Communications networks for factory monitoring.- Programmable logic controllers (PLCs).- Input/output interfaces.- Shop floor information syslÓ+