What’s the future of machine programming languages and controllers? We spoke to Dr. Thomas Kurfess of Georgia Tech University and here are some highlights:
“A lot of our research is asking, ‘Why do we need to use G-code?’ The reality is the only reason you need G-code is because that’s what the machine tool understands, that’s the language it speaks,” says Dr. Thomas Kurfess of the Georgia Institute of Technology, in a recent Better MRO article on machine programming languages.
But what if the controller language could understand more? Or something new and different?
Today’s G-code slows down the processing speed in a machine tool controller, according to Kurfess, which means the process of machining a part can’t be fully optimized.
“There’s a lot of really nice work in control theory looking at ways to directly generate the right electrical signals to turn the motor and make everything move in the right fashion,” he says. “There’s so much more that the controller could do—for example, it could monitor the power in the spindle, so that as a sharp tool becomes duller, the power increases to maintain your cutting speed.”
Read more: https://www.mscdirect.com/betterMRO/metalworking/machine-programming-lan...
How do you imagine the future of controllers?