> Friends, my imagination has been fired with a vision of the
> machine shop of the future.
This really isn't all that imaginary. Such beasts already exist. One of
the companies that I regularly deal with already operates this way: Parts
are designed with AutoCad, the finished design is dropped onto a diskette
(the milling machine isn't networked yet), and the machinist just has to
mount the appropriately-sized stock, insert the disk, and punch GO. (Okay,
okay, there are a couple of parameters that have to be set, but hey, it's
neat to watch anyway.)
Besides milling machines, I have also seen similarly-operated lathes and
x-y translating drill presses.
If Charles Runyan *really* wants to move into the next century, he'll give
up the restaurant and selling hair brushes (see the latest TRF Christmas
book) and expand his C.A.R. Components into this type of computerized
manufacturing. Once you get the CAD drawings rendered, you don't have to
keep any inventory except for raw stock. And why limit it to just British
cars? Next time you're at a big car show stop by the Model As or the
Edsels or the even the Lambo Miuras and ask the owner how he's like to have
con rods or water pump housings, etc made from translated original
engineering drawings...
Lee M. Daniels Laboratory for Molecular Structure and Bonding
daniels@lmsbvx.tamu.edu Texas A&M University (409) 845-3726
* Peace on earth * Goodwill to men *
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