I. Developments in Industry. Computer-aided press-tool design

Abstract

The engineering design spectrum ranges from completely routine to purely subjective. If computer programs can be written to perform the routine functions this will leave the designer free to concentrate completely on the subjective and creative aspects of his task. Additionally the computer can become a master base of information—allowing a system linking the various functions of design and manufacture to be established. Such an integrated system would use programs to aid the various design phases and to produce tapes to control numerically controlled (n. c.) machine tools in the manufacturing stage. An important consideration in the design and implementation of such a system however is that in practice it would build up gradually and each component part would have to be integrated into the conventional system. Thus though such things as traditional engineering drawings may be obsolete, or drastically changed in form, in the total system they would still have to be produced by the programs during the long integration period.