CloudNC: Cloud-Based CAM Automation Yields Faster Results and Higher Quality

Cloud-based computer applications are all around us and continue to expand and influence many aspects of our personal and professional lives. Digital, or computer-based machining (CAM) is no exception.

Although CAM and computer numerically controlled (CNC) technologies have been with us for several decades, cloud-based methods are relatively new, but evolving at a rapid pace.

The first NC machines were built in the 1940s and 1950s, based on existing tools that were modified with servomotors that moved tools or parts to follow points fed into the system on punched tape. These early servomechanisms were rapidly augmented with analog and digital computers, creating the modern CNC machine tools that revolutionized machining, and more recently, cloud-based processes.

Today, cloud-based CAM is making positive inroads in the manufacturing realm by optimizing methods in the following ways:

• Improving CAM/CNC machining productivity
• Better machine visibility and monitoring
• Less machine downtime
• Greater IP security
• Improved machining and produced part quality

We recently spoke with Theo Saville, CEO of CloudNC about the capabilities, benefits, and challenges addressed employing cloud-based CNC methods.

CloudNC is building end-to-end fully-autonomous manufacturing technology that can produce components from specifications with no human input required.

MCADCafe Interviews Theo Saville, CEO CloudNC

Saville introduced his company by saying, “CloudNC is a CNC machining automation company. Essentially, I believe that it should be as simple to manufacture precise metal and plastic components as it is to build a website. Right now, however, if I want to do that, I’m going to have to delve into some very complicated software. I’m going to need years of training for learning how to cut metal. I’m going to need to do an awful lot of manual work to make even a very basic component. In reality all of this should be possible to do simply at the click of a button. We (CloudNC) develop technology that makes it possible to just press a button and get instructions for your CNC milling machine”.

What CloudNC Provides

Essentially, CloudNC provides  cloud-based CAM/CNC.

Saville said, “Exactly. It’s a cloud-based CAM program with a unique twist, but it’s also highly autonomous. So what I want to be able to do is click a button and get 95% of the work that I would normally have to do manually done automatically and instantly so I can really focus on that last 5% or I can just do 20 times more programs than I would normally be able to in a day. It’s a very high level of automation compared to anything that’s ever come before. Thanks largely to massive computing power that’s available to us in the cloud, we can churn through hundreds of thousands to millions of different ways of making it even a very simple or complex component in search of a way that A, works; is B, robust and reliable; and is C, very fast on the cycle time”.

As a demonstration, Saville said, “If I open up my CAM package of choice (for this example, Fusion 360), then what you’ll see in front of you is a component that we pulled out of the demo library. It’s set up in a vise. Now, normally if I wanted to make this component, I would have to manually pick my tools, pick where those tools are going, what the feeds and speeds are for those tools, the angles of attack, the patterns of movement. I would need to be making perhaps dozens of selections and parameter boxes for every single cut that I want to make, and I probably am not going to get it right the first time either”.

“I would much rather simply press a button and then have almost all of that work done for me so that I can troubleshoot and I can get more programs done and I can improve my write first time. So if I open up the CAM Assist button and I simply press go, what is now happening is that full model is being sent to CloudNC in the cloud. We’re now analyzing the components and computing a strategy for how the part will be made”.

“CAM Assist is now taking control of Fusion and starting to fill in all of those parameters that we would normally have to do manually over the course of hours. And we are done in really a matter of less than a minute. Now we just sit and wait for probably another 20 or 30 seconds and we have a complete CAM program for this part in this particular case. There it is, it’s now loading into Fusion and Fusion is now starting to calculate the tool paths here on my desktop computer now that it has been told what to do. And if we were to now leave that for another few minutes, we don’t really need to do anything, we would then be able to post process that and put that on a machine. Normally this is a component that if I was coming at it totally from scratch, it’s not too complicated, but if I want to build a really robust program for it, it would probably take a few hours. But instead, we’re now ready to go. And that is what CAM programming automation looks like. This is how I believe CAM programming should be. That is CloudNC AMT (Active Management Technology)”.

What’s Needed, and What’s Not

Since there are lots of different CNC machines, we asked Saville if CloudNC has a library of all the different CNC machines from different manufacturers, because we assumed that would be needed to create the NC program.

Saville responded, “The great thing is we don’t need that. The way that our technology works is it sits over the top of your existing CAM package and effectively presses all of the buttons. So you already have your CAM software set up. It’s already got all of your machines in it. It’s already got all of your tools in it. We just analyze, we take over the CAM package, a bit like autocomplete for manufacturing. So we don’t need to have those libraries of machines because you, the user, already have that”.

CloudNC’s Software Combines a Diverse Array of Computer Science Fields

Does this mean there is a need to have some other CAM package or with CloudNC no other CAM is needed? 

Saville said, “You definitely need a CAM package to use CloudNC, so it’s not a standalone application. If you are running a factory, you already have a CAM package. You probably don’t want to change your CAM package. But what we can do is 95% of the manual work that we would normally do in that CAM package at the click of a button with the AI CAM assist software that enables you to do that”.

Saville was asked if there are other companies doing this or is CloudNC unique with this approach.

“We seem to be the only one as far as we know. You will find out in the markets automation technologies that might be described as feature based machining, which is effectively you’re given a piece of software that you can program macros into. You can tell the software, if you see a pocket like this or a wall like that, then I want you to take a tool and in this situation apply these feeds and speeds and these patterns that you, the user, will use your expertise to define. The difference with CloudNC CAM assist is there’s none of that manual pre-programming. You don’t have to set up the software over the course of months to try and emulate what it is that you would do. CloudNC is itself an ‘expert’ machinist. It is searching through thousands and thousands to hundreds of thousands of different ways of producing the component so that you never need to program it in the first place. You just click the button, CloudNC CAM assist does all of the work and you end up with an effectively complete program”.

“We have multiple integrations underway for working with different CAM packages and they will be announced in the near future. The one that’s already been announced is with Autodesk Fusion. For now, I’d say watch this space. It depends very much on how much user demand that we receive and the feedback we receive for the most important CAM packages to support.”

What’s Coming from CloudNC?

What can we expect from CloudNC in the coming year?

“In the coming year you should be able to use the software. First, you should expect to see it in use in Fusion 360 and you should be able to receive exactly what it was I just described. You should be able to click a button and you should be able to get most of the CAM programming that would normally be very mundane and dull done in a matter of seconds so that you can either massively increase your throughput of CAM programs or you’re able to really optimize that part. Make sure that your write first time is absolutely flawless. Make sure that your cycle times are significantly better because the software has just given you back so much CAM programming time that you would normally have to do yourself. So I’d look at it as the realization of a dream that I once had which was that I would be able to go into a piece of CAM software and it would operate much like a 3D printer does. I have a very small number of options to select from and I select those and then I press the button, I walk away, I come back and I have a programmed machine and I don’t need to spend years training on how to use it”.

In closing, with regard to CloudNC’s unique approach, Saville said,” That’s how all manufacturing should really be. So we’ve been sitting on this and working on this for a very long time indeed, about seven years so far. And I’ve had the pleasure of using this in our own manufacturing facility and we’re very excited to be sharing it with the world at this point. It’s very, very close”.

Although in its early stages, cloud-connectivity provided by CloudNC is the next big step for CNC machines. By taking the leap, businesses can reap the time, security, cost and productivity rewards, and increased visibility over operations from anywhere and in the world at any time.

For More Information: CloudNC

Tags: automation, CAM, CloudNC, CNC, Fusion

Category: Interview

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 10th, 2023 at 08:48. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.