Computer courses for engineers

Press, 14 July 1982, Page 35

Computer courses for engineers

Courses to help engineering firms make better use of their numerically controlled machine tools are being run at the Christchurch Polytechnic.

The Machine Tool Engineeering Department of the polytechnic has a new microcomputer on which instructions are coded for machine tools, and it is running classes for tradesmen and advanced apprentices. The department has a Fanuc tape-preparation system. which cost about $24,000. with software.

This microcomputer-based system allows the engineer to develop the machine instructions much- more swiftly, to run them through, graphics showing tool movements on the microcomputer screen, and it slashes the down-time of the expensive n.c. machines (they cost up to $250,000 each). The polytechnic has a model D Fanuc, but a model F. costing about $15,000 would be suitable for many businesses.

Mr Roy Beer, director of the Machine Tool Engineering Department, said that a Fanuc had been chosen because 80 per cent of the n.c. machines being used in New Zealand were of this Japanese brand.

At present, only one of the Christchurch firms witn n.c. machines has an electronic

tape-preparation, system remote from the machine tool. A number of firms use the old tape-punch systems or editing devices, and some even send plans to Japan to have the encoding done there.

The problem with the old tape-punch machines is that they are difficult to correct, the instructions to the machine are slow to compile, and imperfections made often hold up the machinetool, or may even damage it.

The micro-computer system allows the instructions to be formulated in a

simpler, computer-assisted language; the instructions are then automatically translated into the complex code the machine-tool reads.

“The computer takes all of the maths out of the job,” says Mr Beer. A run-through on the micro-computer enables the operator to see any of the obvious flaws in the instructions. such as; perhaps, the chuck being smashed into the tool. The computer, as well as showing these errors graphically points them out in words to the operator. Mr Tony Clayton, the instructor who runs courses with the system, says one of the strengths is its being interactive; that is, there is two-way communication between it and the operator.

who answers questions to feed in details of the job to be coded. To show students the system's value, he has them write coded instructions the old way, on a tape-punching flexowriter. When they find they can do the task in a third of the time on the Fanuc computer, they realise some of its potential. Tape preparation has been available on mainframe computers for some time, and it is possible to programme machines as small as Apples and TRSBOs, but the Fanuc is a dedicated

machine, designed solely for this purpose. It comes with a tape reader installed, and the software is in magnetic cassettes. Input can also be by paper tape or by a bubble cassette adapter. Apart from the screen, the machine has punch-tape output and a built-in contact printer. Interest in the engineering community' has been high, and the students are enthusiastic, coming to the department in their own time to complete assignments on the computer, complementing class instruction.