CAM is short for Computer Aided Manufacturing. CAM is the third step in the CNC machining process. CAM tries to translate your designs into machine code. In the field of CNC machining, your designs must be understood by a machine.
The CAM stage in the CNC machining process makes this possible.
There are several steps in the CAM stage of the CNC machining process.
The first thing that you’ll have to determine is the kind of machine that you’ll use in your CNC machining process. Are you going to use a cutting machine or a smoothing machine? Identifying the tool that you’ll use is essential. You don’t want a steel driver poking a hole into an object that is tougher than it. You will ruin the tool and your final product.
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| 3D CAM programing |
You have to give instructions to the CNC machine as precisely as possible. The CNC machining tools don’t know how to execute a given task if you don’t instruct it accurately.
It doesn’t know where parts are. If you put plywood into a machine, the machine will not know if it is starting to cut from the left edge or the right edge. You’ll have to specify it. Moreover, you must tell the CNC machine what it is holding. It doesn’t know if it is holding a steel board or a slab of wood. Locate the part with X Y Z coordinates. Let the machine know where the part is.
