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Article: CAM benefits, CAM changes.(Computer aided manufacturing)
- Article from:
- Control Engineering
- Article date:
- December 1, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 Reed Business Information, Inc. (US). This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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By Peter Roost, Planit Holdings Ltd.
Worldwide, 30-odd companies are developing and marketing computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) software. That is almost unique in any mature business-and is increasingly unsustainable. Consolidation, viewed by many as long overdue, is going to have a big impact on the men and women responsible for manufacturing engineering, and who program computer numerically controlled (CNC) machines too.
Why now? Demands on programmers, and thus on CAM capabilities, are escalating. The pressures include ever-shorter production runs (more programs are needed to keep the business humming), more engineering changes to be dealt with in ...