Integrated manufacturing cycle with numerical-control machine tools

An example of an integrated manufacturing cycle using numerically controlled machine tools is discussed. An externally pressurised oil-thrust bearing plate was chosen as an illustration of the method. The bearing geometry was optimised using Dickinson´s random strategy. The process suggested can be extended to a large number of geometrically similar components, thus saving considerable time on the individual designing, drawing, classifying and programming of a specific component. When the design of components lends itself to computer optimisation, by combining a design optimisation program with a generalised numerically controlled program, the component design and manufacture can be integrated into one process. The generalised program is written for a family of components. The numerically controlled program comprises a main-program deck, where a number of variable geometrical dimensions are assigned a symbolic name, and a data deck with the numerical index of variables. This technique can be applied to families of geometrically similar components, allowing for the variation of each component dimension with the design criteria, as specified for a particular application.