CONTENTS Acknowledgements ix Introduction xi Part 1 The Pursuit of Novelty 1 1. CAM: An overview of terms and developments 3 'Making a start' 5 The work of Sixteen*(makers) 7 2. Division 11 Computation and mechanisation: the work of Charles Babbage 1791-1871 11 Tables 11 Enlisting industry 13 Designer and maker 15 Vindication 17 Prototypes 19 3. The primitives of manufacturing: a select history 23 The tacit resource 23 Collaboration 24 The mechanical resource 25 'The American system' 27 Transfer 29 The growth of mechanisation: a global strategy 30 4. Towards an age of mass customisation 35 An elusive partner 35 Goals 38 The rise of the manufactured component 39 Existing systems approaches 40 Separation 41 A post-script to modernism 42 5. The birth of automation: early developments in computer-aided manufacture 45 The development of numerically controlled machine tools 45 Background 46 Replication 47 Subsidy 49 Distribution of control 50 Exceptions to the rule 50 Horizontal organisations 51 6. The image beguiled: the CAD/CAM era 55 Reliance 55 'Aura' 56 Image 57 Innovation and separation 58 7. Reality and revelation 63 Apprenticeship 63 Patterns 65 Revelation 67 8. The hybridisation of production 69 Feasibility 69 Constraints 71 Continuity 72 Part 2 Enlisting the manufacturing process 77 9. Shorting the automation circuit 79 10. The myth of standardisation 89 11. Making buildings 95 Part 3 Technology 99 12. Computer numerical control 101 Introduction 101 Stages in development 102 13. Programming techniques for CNC 107 Introduction 107 Programming methods 107 Graphical techniques 108 CNC operation 109 Contouring and interpolation 110 Feedback 111 14. CNC lathes and turning centres 113 Introduction 113 The lathe 113 Lathe operations 115 CNC lathe machine configuration 116 15. CNC machining centres 119 Introduction 119 Background 119 Operation 120 16. Case study: computer-integrated manufacturing of space grid construction systems 122 Introduction 122 The MERO system 122 17. CNC routing 127 Introduction 127 Machine configuration 128 Machining operations 129 18. CNC thermal cutting systems 133 Introduction 133 Background 133 Plasma cutting 134 Laser cutting and machining 135 Laser cutting operations 135 Process comparison 136 Machine configuration 137 Electrical discharge machining 137 19. Solid freeform fabrication 141 Prototypes 141 An interdisciplinary approach 143 Process description 143 Applications 145 Input data file formats 145 SFF processes 146 20. Case study: re-constructive surgery 151 21. Production tooling 155 Tools make tools' 155 Process and product specific tooling 156 CAD/CAM and tooling evolution 157 22. 'The non-Euclidean skin' 159 Developments in sheet metal forming159 Shot peen forming 159 Fluid forming 160 23. Rapid tooling 163 Introduction 163 Injection moulding and die casting 163 Select Bibliography 167 Index 171