MidYear Report on Automation, Productivity, and Connectivity

June 20, 2019
A look at manufacturing technology advancements in the virtual space in and around the machine tool

Machine shop operators and programmers don’t spend all their time at their workstations. There is a lot to be done — a lot to be learned — about CNC machine performance and capability, and much of that new and emerging information concerns not just the machines or machine programs, or machine peripherals, but all of these as interactive systems. The information concerning machine automation and machine programs, and machine performance standards, is converging.

More than this, the convergence is taking place simultaneously on the shop floor and in the Cloud, so that what happens within the machine is influencing and being influenced by what happens between machines.

Because technology cannot wait, what follows here is a series of vignettes on recent developments in machine tool automation and connectivity.