What is a "CNC Machine" and what is it's purpose?

Answer 1

CNC means Computer Numerical Control
If you'll be working in manufacturing, it's likely that you'll be dealing with CNC on a regular basis.

CNC machines typically replace some existing manufacturing process/es. Take one of the simplest manufacturing processes, drilling holes, for example.

A drill press machine holes. A person can place a drill in the drill chuck that is secured in the spindle of the drill press. They can then (manually) select the desired speed for rotation (commonly by switching belt pulleys), and activate the spindle. Then they manually pull on the quill lever to drive the drill into the workpiece being machined.

While this manual intervention may be acceptable for manufacturing companies if but a small number of holes or workpieces must be machined, as quantities grow, so does the likelihood for fatigue due to the tediousness of the operation. There are more complicated machining operations that would require a much higher skill level (and increase the potential for mistakes resulting in scrap workpieces) of the person running the conventional machine tool.


By comparison, the CNC equivalent for a drill press (possibly a CNC machining center or CNC drilling & tapping center) can be programmed to perform this operation in a much more automatic fashion. Everything that the drill press operator was doing manually will now be done by the CNC machine, including: placing the drill in the spindle, activating the spindle, positioning the workpiece under the drill, machining the hole, and turning off the spindle.

Answer 2

CNC means Computer Numerically Controlled, which can mean any machine that has a computer which runs it.

Typically, we're talking about manufacturing or production machines, that will perform some kind of cutting, drilling, or assembly function after a program has been written and an operator pushes the button for the machine to start.

Answer 3

'CNC' means "computer numerically controlled" and it describes any of a number of different machines (arbor mills, end mills, lathes, presses, multi-spindle drills, etc.) that can be programmed to move a workpiece to a prescribed location (or locations) and perform a prescribed operation (or operations) on it. They're a sort of Industrial Robot.

Doug