Part 1/3 - STEP NC-The End Of G-Codes?

Imagine this: You call up a Web browser on the PC-based CNC at your machine tool. You go to a certain Web site. From a menu on the home page, you select one of the databases it accesses. A 3D image of a workpiece comes up. You click on an icon in the task bar and check a few parameters and default settings on a pop-up window. Then it's a click on the CYCLE START button. The spindle motor starts to whir, axes begin to move, coolant spurts out and chips are soon bouncing off the Lexan panels in the machine guarding.

According to efforts underway right now, it won't be long—a couple of years at most—before this scenario depicts how most shops will be running their machine tools. NC part programs as we've known them for almost 50 years will become passe. All that the machine tool controller will need is the digital product model represented by the 3D image on the Web page.

The CNC won't use G-codes. Everything it has to know about how to move the cutting tool is in the product model's database. There will be no need for creating a new and separate file of tool path data. Tool paths will be figured out in the CNC itself, based on the product model. That means there's no need for post processors either. Data will be formatted for execution by the machine within the CNC. And because the product model won't change, it will be available for machining "hard copies" whenever and wherever needed.

"Whenever" means as long as the product's life cycle is on-going. Twenty-five years is a typical life span for aerospace parts, for example. Neither changes in computer technology nor advances in machine tool technology over the years would affect the usability of the product model as machine tool input.

"Wherever" means anywhere an adequately equipped shop has authorized access to the product model database. With the Internet, that access is worldwide. Parts could be machined anywhere in the world through a global supply chain, with the digital product model serving as the universal "NC part program."

What will it take to make this dream come true? How much more has to be done to get there? How close are we right now?