HISTORY OF CNC
While
At the core, a machine tool is one where the machine
guides the toolpath — as opposed to it being guided by
direct, freehand human guidance, such as with hand
tools and pretty much every tool until machine tooling
was invented.
Numerical control (NC) means using programmable
logic (data in the form of letters, numbers, symbols,
words, or a combination) to automate control of
machining tools. Before its advent, machining tools
were invariably controlled by human operators.
Computer numerical control (CNC) then is when
precisely coded instructions are sent to a
microprocessor in the control system of a machining
tool, enabling an enhanced level of precision and
consistency. When people today talk about CNC, they
almost always mean a milling machine connected to a
computer. Technically, it can be used to describe any
machine controlled by a computer.
Predecessor Mechanisms
A number of inventions were essential to laying the
foundation for the development of CNC machines. We
look at four essentials here: early machine tools,
punched cards, servomechanisms, and the
Automatically Programmed Tool (APT) programming
language.
Early Machine Tools
First, a shout out to what is widely considered the first
machine tool: In 1775, John Wilkinson’s boring machine
was the solution to accurately boring cylinders for
steam engines. James Watt is credited with creating
the steam engine that powered the Second Industrial
Revolution in England, but he was having issues
obtaining consistent precision in his steam engine
cylinders — until Wilkinson crafted his engine cylinder
boring machine, based on the design of his original
cannon-boring machine.
Punched Cards
In 1725, French textile worker Basile Bouchon invented
a way to control looms by using data encoded on
paper tapes through a series of punched holes.
groundbreaking, this method was fragile and still
required an operator. In 1805, Joseph Marie Jacquard
adopted this concept but strengthened and simplified it
by tying punched sturdier cards in sequence, thereby
automating the process. These punched cards are
widely regarded as foundational for what was to
become modern computing, and signaled the end of the
cottage industry in weaving.
Interestingly, the Jacquard loom was met with
resistance by the silk weavers of the time, who feared
this automation would rob them of their jobs and
livelihood. They repeatedly burned the looms that were
put into production; however, their resistance proved
futile as the industry recognized the advantages of the
loom. By 1812, in France, there were 11,000 Jacquard
looms in use.
Punched cards developed throughout the second half of
the 1800s and found many uses, from telegraphy to
self-playing pianos. While the early cards determined
mechanical control, American inventor Herman
Hollerith pioneered an electromechanical punched card
tabulator, changing the game. His system was patented
in 1889, while he was working for the United States
Census Bureau.
In 1896, he founded the Tabulating Machine Company,
which was consolidated with four other companies to
form IBM in 1924. In the latter half of the 20th century,
punched cards were first used for data input and
storage in computers and numerically controlled
machines. The original format featured five rows of
holes, while subsequent versions had six, seven, eight or
more rows.
Servomechanisms
A servomechanism is an automatic device that uses
error-sensing feedback to correct the performance of a
machine or mechanism. In some cases, the servo allows
control of large amounts of power by a device with
much lower power. A servomechanism is comprised of
a device being controlled, another device that gives
commands, an error detector, an error-signal
amplifier, and a device to correct the errors (the
servomotor). Servos are typically used to control
variables like position and speed and are most
commonly electrical, pneumatic, or hydraulic.
The first electric servomechanism was created in
England by H. Calendar in 1896. By 1940, MIT had
created a dedicated Servomechanisms Laboratory,
which grew out of the Department of Electrical
Engineering’s increased attention to the subject. In CNC
machining, servos are essential to attaining the required
tolerances of the automated machining process.
The word servomotor is credited to J.M. Farcot’s 1868
usage of “le servomoteur” (slave motor) to describe
hydraulic and steam engines for use in ship steering.
Nikola Tesla used an electric servomechanism to steer
his models ships remotely; he was granted a patent for
his system in 1898, seen here.
Automatically Programmed Tool (APT)
Born out of the MIT Servomechanisms Lab in 1956, as a
brainchild of the Computer Applications Group,
Automatically Programmed Tool (APT) is an easy-to-
use, high-level programming language intended
specifically to generate instructions for numerically
controlled machine tools. The original version
preceded FORTRAN, but later versions were rewritten
in FORTRAN.
APT was the language created to work with MIT’s first
NC machine, one of the first in the world. It went on to
become the standard for programming computer-
controlled machine tools and was used widely through
the 1970s. Development of APT was sponsored by the
Air Force, and it was eventually added to the public
domain.
The head of the Computer Applications Group, Douglas
T. Ross, is known as the father of APT. He also later
coined the term “computer-aided design” (CAD).
The Birth of Numerical Control
Before the advent of computer-numerically controlled
machines, first came the development of numerical
control and the first NC machine tools. And while there
are some discrepancies in different accounts of the
historical details, the first NC machine tools were both a
response to specific manufacturing challenges faced by
the military as well as a natural progression of the
punch card system.
“Numerical control marked the beginning of the second
industrial revolution and the advent of an age in which
the control of machines and industrial processes would
pass from imprecise draft to exact science.” — The
Society of Manufacturing Engineers
American inventor John T. Parsons (1913–2007) is
widely considered the father of numerical control,
which he conceived of and implemented with the help
of aircraft engineer Frank L. Stulen. The son of a
Michigan manufacturer, Parsons began working in his
father’s factory as an assembler at the age of 14. Later,
he owned and operated a number of manufacturing
plants under the family business, Parsons
Manufacturing Co.
Parsons holds the first NC patent and was inducted in
the National Inventors Hall of Fame for his
groundbreaking work in numerical control. In total,
Parsons holds 15 patents, with another 35 granted to
his business. The Society of Manufacturing Engineers
interviewed Parsons in 2001 to get the story from his
perspective. This engaging read is available in an online
archive.
Early NC Timeline
1942: John T. Parsons is subcontracted by Sikorsky
Aircraft to build helicopter rotor blades.
1944: Caused by a design flaw in the spar, one of the
first 18 blades they made fails, killing the pilot. Parsons
has the idea to stamp the rotor blades out of metal to
make them stronger and eliminate the glue and screw
fastening.
1946: Creating a manufacturing tool to produce the
blades precisely was going to be complicated, so
Parsons hires aircraft engineer Frank Stulen and puts
together an engineering team with three others. Stulen
has the idea to employ IBM punch cards to determine
the stress levels on the blades, and they rent seven IBM
machines for the project.
1949: The U.S. Air Force needs help with ultra-precise
wing construction. Parsons pitches his numerically
controlled machine and is awarded a $200,000 contract
to make it a reality.
1949: Parsons and Stulen had been working with Snyder
Machine & Tool Corp. on the machine and realized they
need servomotors for their machine to work precisely.
Parsons subcontracts the servos for the “Card-a-matic
Milling Machines” to the MIT Servomechanisms
Laboratory.
1951: The Air Force NC machine deal is now awarded to
MIT. There are varying accounts of what happened that
led to Parsons getting cut out of the deal: MIT underbid
Parsons and Parsons ran out of money are two accounts
(see below).
1952 (May): Parsons files a patent for “Motor
Controlled Apparatus for Positioning Machine Tool.”
He’s granted the patent in 1958.
1952 (August): In response, MIT files patent for
“Numerical Control Servo-System.”
1952: MIT demonstrates their 7-track punch tape
system (with article by William Pease in Scientific
American), which is complex and expensive (250
vacuum tubes, 175 relays, in 5 refrigerator-sized
cabinets).
MIT’s original 1952 numerically controlled mill was a
retrofitted 3-axis Cincinnati Milling Machine Company
Hydro-Tel.
1955: Concord Controls (formed by members of the
original MIT team) creates the Numericord, which
replaces the punch tape on the MIT NC machine with a
magnetic tape reader that GE is working on.
1958: Parsons receives US Patent 2,820,187 and sells an
exclusive license to Bendix. IBM, Fujitsu, and GE all take
sub-licenses after having already started development
of their own machines.
1958: MIT publishes report on the economics of NC,
concluding that the current incarnation doesn’t really
save time, but instead shifts labor from factory floor to
those creating the punch tapes.
Up until the 1950s, numerically controlled machines ran
on data from punched cards largely made using a
painstaking manual process. The turning point in the
evolution to CNC is when the cards were replaced with
computer control, which maps directly to the
development of computers, as well as computer-aided
design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM)
programs. Machining became one of the first
applications of computing.
Although Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine,
developed in the mid-1800s, is credited as being the
first computer in the modern sense, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology’s (MIT) real-time computer
Whirlwind I (also born out of the Servomechanisms Lab)
was one of the first to calculate in parallel and use a
magnetic core memory (pictured below). The team was
able to use the machine to code computer-controlled
production of punched tape. The original Whirlwind
used about 5,000 vacuum tubes and weighed roughly
20,000 lbs.
Timeline of the Evolution from NC to CNC
Mid-1950s: G-code, the most widely used NC
programming language is born out of the MIT
Servomechanisms Lab. G-code is used to tell
computerized machine tools how to make something.
Instructions are sent to the a machine controller, which
then tell the motors how fast to move and what path to
follow.
1956: The Air Force proposes creation of a general
programming language for numerical control. A new
MIT research division, led by Doug Ross and named the
Computer Applications Group, begins work on the
proposal, developing what would become known as the
programming language Automatically Programmed Tool
(APT).
1957: The Aircraft Industries Association and a division
of the Air Force collaborate with MIT to standardize the
work with APT and create the first official CNC machine.
Created before graphical interfaces and FORTRAN were
invented, APT used text alone to convey geometry and
toolpaths to a numerically controlled (NC) machine.
(Later versions were written in FORTRAN, and APT was
eventually released in the public domain. Check out
AptStepMaker for a modern rendition.)
1957: While working at General Electric, American
computer scientist Patrick J. Hanratty develops and
releases an early commercial numerical control
programming language named Pronto, laying the
foundation for future CAD programs and earning him
the informal title “Father of CAD/CAM.”
“On March 11, 1958, a new era in manufacturing
production was born. For the first time in the history of
manufacturing, a number of large production machines,
electronically controlled, were functioning
simultaneously as an integrated production line.
Virtually unattended, these machines were drilling,
boring, milling, and passing unrelated parts from
machine to machine.”
1959: The MIT team holds a press conference to
showcase their new CNC machine development.
Famously, a CNC-milled aluminum ashtray is handed
out as part of the press kit.
1959: The Air Force signs a one-year contract with MIT’s
Electronic Systems Laboratory for development of the
“Computer-Aided Design Project.” The resulting system,
Automated Engineering Design (AED), was released to
the public domain in 1965.
1959: General Motors (GM) starts work on what would
become known as Design Augmented by Computer
(DAC-1), one of the earliest graphical CAD systems. In
the second year, they brought in IBM as a collaborator.
Drawings could be scanned into the system, which
digitized them, and modifications could be made.
Additional software could then convert the lines into a
3D shape and output into APT for sending to milling
machines. DAC-1 was released to production in 1963
and publicly unveiled in 1964.
1962: The first commercial graphical CAD system,
Electronic Drafting Machine (EDM), developed at U.S.
defense contractor Itek, becomes available. Purchased
by mainframe and supercomputer firm Control Data
Corporation, it was renamed Digigraphics. It was initially
used by the likes of Lockheed Corporation to build
production parts for the C-5 Galaxy military transport
aircraft, demonstrating the first example of an end-to-
end CAD/CNC production system.
1963: Ivan Sutherland, a PhD candidate at MIT, submits
his thesis titled “Sketchpad: A Man-Machine Graphical
Communication System,” describing the first graphical
user interface, which ran on MIT Lincoln Labs’ TX-2
computer (a transistorized version of Whirlwind), one of
the world’s biggest and most powerful machines at the
time, with 306 kilobytes of core memory.
CNC Machines Gain Traction and Popularity
During the mid-60s, the advent of affordable
minicomputers was a game changer to the industry.
These powerful machines took up much less space than
the room-sized mainframes used to date, thanks to the
new transistor and core memory technologies.
Minicomputers, also known at the time as midrange
computers, naturally also came with a more affordable
price tag, freeing them up from the previous confines of
a corporation or the military and putting the potential
of precision and reliable repeatability in the hands of
smaller companies and businesses.
In contrast, microcomputers were 8-bit single-user,
simple machines that run simple operating systems like
MS-DOS, while superminis were 16-bit or 32-bit.
Pioneering companies include DEC, Data General, and
Hewlett-Packard (HP) (who now refers to its former
minicomputers, like the HP3000, as “servers”).
The Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) PDP-8 on
display at the National Museum of American History,
one of the early minicomputers that was often
dedicated to running one mill. [Image Source]
During the early 1970s, slow economic growth and
rising employment costs made CNC machining seem like
a great, cost-effective solution, and demand for lower-
cost NC system machines increased. While U.S.
researchers were focused on software and high-end
industries like aerospace, Germany (joined by Japan in
the 80s) surpassed the U.S. in machine sales by focusing
on the low-cost markets. There were, however, an array
of American CAD firms and vendors at this point,
including UGS Corp., Computervision, Applicon, and
IBM.
In the 1980s, as the cost of microprocessor-based
hardware dropped and local area network (LAN, a
computer network that interconnects to others)
systems emerged, so did the cost and accessibility of
CNC machines. By the second half of the 80s,
minicomputers and large computer terminals were
replaced by networked workstations, file servers, and
personal computers (PCs), untethering CNC machines
from the universities and companies that traditionally
housed them (since they were the only ones who could
afford the expensive computers that accompanied
them).
In 1989, the National Institute of Standards and
Technology, an agency of the US Government’s
Department of Commerce, created the Enhanced
Machine Controller project (EMC2, later renamed
LinuxCNC), an open-source GNU/Linux software system
to control CNC machines using general purpose
computers. LinuxCNC paved the way for a future of
personal CNC machines, which continued to be a
pioneer application for computing.
The trajectory of how institution-based, room-sized CNC
machines made the transition to desktop machines like
the Bantam Tools Desktop PCB Milling Machine is
directly parallel to the development of personal
computers, microcontrollers, and other electronic
components. Without these developments, the
powerful and compact CNC machines of today wouldn’t
have been possible. Below is a visual recap through
1980.
The Dawn of Personal Computers
In 1977, three “microcomputers” were simultaneously
released — Apple II, PET 2001 and TRS-80 — and in
January of 1980, Byte magazine announced that “the
era of off-the-shelf personal computers has arrived.”
Developments escalated quickly from there, with fierce
competition between frontrunner Apple and IBM.
By 1984, Apple released the classic Macintosh, the first
mass-produced, mouse-driven personal computer with
a graphical user interface (GUI). The Macintosh came
equipped with MacPaint and MacWrite (which
popularized WYSIWYG — what you see is what you get
— applications). The next year, through a partnership
with Adobe, new graphical programs were launched,
setting the stage for computer-aided design (CAD) and
computer-aided manufacturing (CAM).
The legendary 1984 Apple Macintosh.
The Development of CAD and CAM Programs
The intermediaries between the computer and the CNC
machine are two essential programs: CAD and CAM.
Before we delve into a brief history of the two, here’s
an overview.
CAD programs enable the digital creation, modification,
and sharing of a 2D or 3D object. CAM programs allow
you to select tools, materials, and other variables for
your cutting job. Even though you’ve done all your CAD
work and know what you want your part to look like,
the milling machine doesn’t know the size or shape of
milling tool you want to use or the specifics of your
material size or type.
CAM programs use the model you created in CAD to
calculate the movement of the tool through the
material. These movement calculations, called
toolpaths, are automatically generated by the CAM
program for maximum efficiency. Some modern CAM
programs can also create on-screen simulations of how
the machine will cut the material with the tool you’ve
chosen. Running simulations instead of cutting a piece
over and over saves on tool wear, machining time, and
material.
The roots of modern CAD date back to 1957 and a
program named Pronto, made by computer scientist
Patrick J. Hanratty, recognized as the father of
CAD/CAM. In 1971, he also developed the widely
adopted program ADAM, an interactive graphic design,
drafting, and manufacturing system written in Fortran
and designed to be ubiquitous across machines. The
University of California Irvine, where he conducted
research at the time, states, “Industry analysts estimate
that 70 percent of all 3-D mechanical CAD/CAM systems
available today trace their roots back to Hanratty’s
original code.”
Developed between Hanratty’s two programs, in 1960,
was Ivan Sutherland’s groundbreaking program
Sketchpad, the first to ever use a total graphical user
interface (we elaborated further on Sketchpad in Part 2
of this series).
Notably, Autodesk’s AutoCAD, introduced in 1982, was
the first 2D CAD program to be made specifically for
personal computers rather than mainframe computers.
By 1994, AutoCAD R13 made the program compatible
with 3D designs. In 1995, SolidWorks was released,
developed with the express purpose of making CAD
design more accessible to a broader population,
followed by Autodesk Inventor in 1999, which worked
to be even more intuitive.
In the mid 80s, a popular AutoCAD demo of scalable
graphics showed our solar system in 1:1 scale in
kilometers. You could even zoom in on the moon and
read a plaque on the Apollo Lunar Lander.
It’s impossible to talk about the evolution of CNC
machines without giving a hat tip to the software
creators who are working to lower the barrier to digital
design entry and make it accessible to a wide range of
skill levels. At the current forefront is Autodesk Fusion
360, “the first 3D CAD, CAM, and CAE tool of its kind
that connects your entire product development process
in a single cloud-based platform that works on PC, Mac,
and mobile devices.” This incredibly powerful software
offering is free to students, educators, qualifying
startups, and hobbyist makers.
Early Compact CNC Machines
One of the pioneers and originators of compact CNC
machines, Ted Hall, founder of ShopBot Tools, was a
professor of neuroscience at Duke University, and in his
spare time, he liked to build plywood boats. He sought a
tool to facilitate cutting the plywood, but even used
CNC mills at the time ran upwards of $50K. In 1994, he
showed a group of people the compact mill he had
designed in his workshop, thus kickstarting the
company’s journey.
Many years later, Hall would write a series of articles on
how digital fabrication and specifically desktop
machines hold the potential to bring manufacturing
back to American soil. Below is a short excerpt from one
of his works (October 2016).
“Affordable digital and robotic technologies for
production are making small- and medium-scale
manufacturing realistically competitive again. An
enthusiastic case for a renewed manufacturing around
these technologies has been called the “new industrial
revolution” — by which small, digital-technology-based-
businesses are seen as a possible core for a new
manufacturing economy.
The visions for this renewed manufacturing economy
have been catalyzed by the technology of 3D printing.
And, 3D printing is just one of several game-changing
“digital fabrication” technologies that include, along
with the additive methodology of 3D-printing,
subtractive technologies such as CNC-machining and
laser-cutting, and many variations of robotic-assembly.”
Hall is also co-creator of 100K Garages, a manufacturing
collective of personal digital fabrication workshops.
In 2001, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT) launched the new Center for Bits and Atoms, a
sister lab to the MIT Media Lab, with visionary professor
Neil Gershenfeld at the helm. Gershenfeld is considered
one of the founding fathers of the fab lab (fabrication
laboratory) concept. Funded by a $13.75 million
Information Technology Research award from the
National Science Foundation, the Center for Bits and
Atoms (CBA) embarked on a quest to help create a
network of small-scale workshops offering personal
digital fabrication tools to the masses.
Preceding, in 1998, Gershenfeld created a class at MIT
called “How to make (almost) anything,” with the intent
to introduce tech students to expensive, industrial-size
fabrication machines, but his class attracted students
from a wide variety of backgrounds, including art,
design, and architecture. This became the basis for a
revolution in personal digital fabrication.
One of the projects born out of CBA was Machines That
Make (MTM), focused on developing rapid-prototyping
machines that can be used in fab labs. And one of the
machines born out of this project was the MTM Snap
desktop CNC milling machine by students Jonathan
Ward, Nadya Peek, and David Mellis, created in 2011.
Encased in heavy duty snap-fit HDPE plastic (cut out of
kitchen cutting boards on a large-format Shopbot CNC
mill), this 3-axis mill ran on a low-cost Arduino
microcontroller and was capable of precisely milling
everything from PCBs to foam and wood, all while fitting
on a desktop and being portable and affordable.
At the time, while some CNC mill manufacturers like
ShopBot and Epilog were working to release smaller,
cheaper desktop versions of their mills, they were still
fairly expensive.
In true fab lab spirit, the MTM Snap team even shared
their bill of materials so you could make your own.
“A processing sketch communicates over USB to an
Arduino. The Arduino then controls the three separate
stepper driver boards that control the stepper motors
for the x, y, and z axes.”
Shortly after the creation of the MTM Snap, team
member Jonathan Ward teamed up with engineers
Mike Estee and Forrest Green and material scientist
Danielle Applestone to collaborate on a DARPA-funded
project called MENTOR (Manufacturing
Experimentation and Outreach) to “reinvent shop class
for the 21st century.”
The team, working out of Otherlab in San Francisco,
regrouped and revisited the MTM Snap machine design,
with the goal of making an affordable, precise, easy-to-
use desktop CNC mill that they named the Othermill,
the predecessor to the Bantam Tools Desktop PCB
Milling Machine.
The Other Machine Co. team launched a successful
crowdfunding campaign in May of 2013. A month later,
in June, ShopBot Tools launched a campaign (also
successful) for a portable CNC machine called the
HandiBot, which was meant to be taken directly to job
sites. With both machines, a main quality was the
accompanying software — Otherplan and FabMo,
respectively — intended to be intuitive and easy-to-use
WYSIWYG programs that make CNC machining
accessible to a wide audience. Clearly, as evidenced by
the support of both of these projects, the community
was ready for this type of innovation.
The Continuing Trend of Factory to Desktop
The desktop digital fabrication movement has escalated
since those first machines went commercial in 2013.
CNC mills are now joined by all types of computer
numerically controlled machines that have gone from
the factory to the desktop, everything from wire
benders to knitting machines, vacuum formers, waterjet
cutters, laser cutter, and more.
The variety of CNC machines that have moved from the
factory floor to the desktop is steadily growing.
The original fab labs born out of MIT were developed
with the goal of democratizing access to powerful,
albeit cost-prohibitive, digital fabrication machines,
arming bright minds with the tools to bring their ideas
into the physical world, tools that were only afforded to
seasoned professionals in the past. Now, the desktop
manufacturing revolution is taking that access one step
further by drastically reducing cost while maintaining
professional precision, from the fab lab to the personal
workshop.
As the trajectory continues, there are exciting new
developments in incorporating artificial intelligence (AI)
into desktop manufacturing and digital design. How
these developments continue to affect manufacturing
and innovation remains to be seen, but we’ve come a
long way from the days of room-sized computers and
powerful manufacturing tools being exclusively
tethered to large institutions and companies. The power
is now in our hands.