Programming is at the heart of much of today’s machining. Keeping up to date and committing to lifelong learning are essential regardless of where the industry is headed. Is the machine programmer of the future a code developer, a systems integrator or an enabler of artificial intelligence?
How automated will machining become in the future? How canned, or “feature-based,” will machining functions become?
Some argue it will have to go more in the feature-based direction to account for the expected scarcity of skills. Automation is happening—but it requires human intervention to maintain, troubleshoot and program. Will the industry become completely run by automation? Not likely.
“There’s a great dishwasher analogy someone brought up to me: In my lifetime, I don’t believe you’ll ever see your dishwasher unload automatically because there’s expertise and complexity that goes into loading and unloading,” says Dr. Thomas Kurfess, a professor and the HUSCO/Ramirez distinguished chair in fluid power and motion control at the Georgia Institute of Technology, in a Q&A with Better MRO.
“The same thing goes for machines––we need to make the machines easier to use by helping the programmer make choices such as which tool to use and what orientations to program in full 5-axis continuous modes,” Dr. Kurfess explains.
Programming languages themselves may evolve to take more advantage of the computing power in graphics processing units, or GPUs, like you see in high-end gaming systems. Some machining might become easier—but to stay on top of skills and earn higher take-home pay, programming and a deep understanding of technology have never been more important to machinists.
Better MRO talks to industry and academic insiders about programming—and other skills and technologies affecting the industry.
Challenges in Today’s CNC Machine Programming
Cutting strategies, cooling, CAM software, machine tools and many other areas of machining are consistently evolving. And so is the integration of all these things to allow them to work together.
Technology is not always on the same timeline: CAM software may not be ready for the latest machine or cutting tool innovation, so it’s up to the programmer to understand how to best manipulate and refine the geometries needed, explains Ronnie Brittain, a CNC instructor at NASCAR Technical Institute, which is part of Universal Technical Institute.
“I think one of the biggest challenges that CNC technicians face today is trying to integrate automation into the process,” Brittain says. “So maybe you have a robot or a gantry loader that’s loading or unloading a machine moving a part from here to there. It has to also be able to communicate with a CNC machine tool. Those two programming languages are quite a bit different.”
Brittain has also worked for a highly automated automotive maker and witnessed firsthand how robotic technicians and CNC programmers would have to work together to troubleshoot issues in integrating the systems.
“It seems like more and more companies are trying to work toward having that be a one-person job … So they are asking machinists to understand more and to up their skills and understand how to make things work together, between robots, CNCs and all the different machines that are out there,” Brittain says.
Robotics are making their way into the smaller job shops too—mainly to help keep up with production demands and to keep machines running 24/7 in a “lights-out” capacity, Brittain says. It requires a different programmer’s skill set to create that kind of automation.
“The challenge that we face in manufacturing, specifically in programming today, is variability … When I look at the number of tools-to-geometry ratio, there are infinite number of ways to cut parts,” says Jason Ray, CEO of Paperless Parts. “A lot of people think that there are so many unique geometries of parts and so many different variables of geometry. I would say there are a lot, but typically job shops specialize.”
Ray thinks the industry will start to see more and more data and machine learning applied to standardized data sets, such as toolpaths and geometries, which will make things easier.
Do you need a technical question answered? Ask the MSC Metalworking Tech Team in the forum.
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19What is age of millennials/Genz. From ? to ? or years.
thanks
John
21Millennials were born between 1981-1996 while Gen Z'ers were born between 1995 and 2015.
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