(Excuse me if this is old news. I'm catching up on old digests, and I
just got to Christmas Eve this morning...)
The future is here and I document it daily (see signature). Computer
Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) has been envisioned for many decades, and
it began truly finding wide-spread application in the mid-80s. The
first computer-controlled machining application was aircraft propellers.
Their geometry is quite complex, and early computers had to be
programmed by hand to drive mills to machine them.
Today, every major automotive manufacturer, defense industry
manufacturer, and even cosmetics firms are tied into this industry. How
else do you think the Soft-Lux soap manufacturers can have a different
plastic bottle every 6 months? Clothes are designed and manufactured
this way, as are the carpets in many cars. Besides the metal, all of
the plastic, rubber, and wooden parts in your cars are manufactured this
way, too.
The major players in this industry are Intergraph, Parametric
Technology, Computer Vision, Catia, and many others. It's a huge market
segment in the software industry (something like a third).
Marketing departments use 2-D (and often 3-D) design packages with
photo-realistic visualization software to design prototypes; these
electronic files are passed to engineering departments who design
prototypes; the same files go through engineering analysis; the same
files are used to generate NC programs to mill final parts, castings,
plastic-injection molds, stamps, dies; punch programs, nesting programs,
cutting-torch programs, etc. The files are then stored in enormous
databases where they are tracked through revisions, linked to inventory
control, and accessed again and again when manufacturing centers need
them.
If you can come up with the engineering drawing in the appropriate file
format, there is a machine shop (or a dozen) within 200 miles of
virtually any of you who can machine it.
But if the part is still manufactured by almost anyone at all it's
cheaper to buy it off the shelf, because the manufacturers all work this
way anyway---but they manufacture in volume.
Uh, Merry Christmas! :^)
R. Kevin Riggs Manager of Applications Documentation
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Intergraph Corporation TEL: (205) 730-3074
Mailstop: GD3003 FAX: (205) 730-3453
Huntsville, AL 35894-0001 rkriggs@ingr.com
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