What I will be speaking about
Types of CNC machining
Some common misconceptions
Skills required in industry
Job opportunities in manufacturing in India

Types of CNC machining
Metal cutting Metal forming
Metal cutting accounts for most of the CNC machining.
Metal cutting machines are far more numerous.

Tool room - 3D milling

Aerospace - 5 axes milling

Production - Turning

Production - milling

CNC machining types – in a nutshell
Production machining
(2D milling, turning)
Tool room machining
(3d / 5-axes milling) die asting 6. Die c

Misconception 1
Most industries do 3D, 5-axes machining.
A few low tech industries do production machining.

Which of these parts do you see most often on shop floors ?
What type of machining do you mainly see in these firms ?

Production machining accounts for 95 % of CNC milling.
3D / 5-axes milling for 5 %.

Misconception 2
3D, 5-axes machining is 'high tech'.
Production machining is 'low tech'.

Nothing is 'high tech' or 'low tech'.
Each type of machining has its own complexity.

Misconception 3
CAM software designed for 3D / 5-axes milling can also program for 2D milling and turning.

CAM software for production machining
Must have a wide variety of machining operations
Must have a wide variety of tools
Must have features to reduce cycle time
Must have features to check and optimize spindle power usage
Must generate shop documents automatically

CAM software for 3D/5-axes machining
Must have 3D CAD
Must be able to machine complex surfaces
CAM software requirement for each application is different.
Same software cannot do both.

Features unique to 2D CAM
Tools only available in 2D CAM
Face mill, Side and face mill, T-slot mill, Dovetail mill,
Thread mill, Form mill, Rough bore, Finish bore,
Combination drill
Operations only available in 2D CAM
Face milling, Side slot milling, T-slot milling,
Dovetail milling, Thread milling, Form milling,
Rough boring, Finish boring, Combination hole drilling, Finish boring, Back spot facing
Automatic shop documents in 2D CAM
Cycle time breakup, process sheet, tools list, tool layout sheet, spindle power graph, Excel output of docs for analysis

Misconception 4
Programming is the main task in CNC machining.

Programming is NOT the main task.
Programming is just one of the steps.

Misconception 5
Most industries do programming by CAM software. Only a few small industries program manually.

How do these firms do their CNC programming ?
1. Manually
2. Using CAM software

The gap – institute to industry
Main cause of poor productivity on shop floors is lack of knowledge of tooling, cutting parameters selection.
Fact : Most CNC personnel on shop floors do not know the full form of the commonly used word 'carbide'.
Institutes concentrate on teaching programming, students think this is all that is required.
Fresh engineers are as a result useless in industry, take
6-12 months to learn required skills and be useful.

Skills required in industry
Machine construction
Machining operations
Tooling
Cutting parameters selection
Manual programming
Programming using CAM software

Parts pyramid
CAD software in Design office
Forging Die made in Tool room
Forged parts machined on shop floor

Machines and CAM software pyramid
1 CNC machine in Tool room
Programmed with 3D CAM
Many CNC machines on production shop floor
Programmed with 2D CAM

BE syllabus
Theory
- Introduction to CNC
- Elements of CNC
- CNC machining – turning centers / milling
- Part programming
- Steps in part programming for Milling and Turning
Practicals
- Learning manual programming using simulation software
- Learning computer aided programming using CAM packages

Steps in teaching
What you need to teach, and Cadem products

India – CNC metal cutting industry
Total population : 100,000. Yearly increase : 15,000
CNC machining centers and lathes : 90 %
CNC sheet metal cutting and forming machines : 10 %
Ratio of milling machines and lathes : 6:1
India is
7 th
12 th largest consumer of machine tools in the world.
largest producer, 4 th largest importer
Growth last year
31 % growth in consumtion, 68 % growth in imports
Job opportunities for engineers in
CNC programming, Tool design, Process engineering

Opportunities for students
Production machining is 2D. Tool room machining is 3D.
95 % of CNC machines are used in production machining.
Only 5 % in tool rooms.
CNC skills for production machining are very different from skills for tool room machining.
Skills for production machining can only be taught using CAM software for production machining.
CNC machining is a very high growth industry. Given the right training, students can get placement easily.