CAD CAM and CIM
CAD means
CAM means
CIM means
CAD in more detail.
Let us say that you were designing a CD rack and you entered details of a load of CD packets into the design programme. It could work out for you the minimum space you would require for a set number of CD's. If you tried to make a holder which was too small (in other words the CD would not fit into the spaces drawn, the programme would tell you this and ask you to rethink), either using smaller CD packets or a bigger spaces for them. Did you know that with computer aided design you connect moving parts on screen and set them in motion so that you are sure things work before stating to make them? If you wanted a CD holder to take 50 CD's all you need to do is draw one and tell the computer to redraw it another 49 times. Then you can ask it to put the 50 drawings together in different ways to see which looks the best, which uses the least material or takes up the least space. You can show people the different designs and see which they like the best, and so which is likely to be the best seller.
If you wanted to see the design in 3D pictorial views you can ask the computer to show you it in this way. Design programmes will also allow you to make changes to your design and it will let you see what effect it will have on the finished thing. More expensive design programmes will allow you to put in the price of materials that you are using and it will work out for you the total cost of the materials you would need and the effect any changes would have on cost.
Because materials are bought in as standard sizes (for example 2 metre X 1.5 metre boards of plywood) the computer can work out how to place all the pieces of your work onto the board so that there is the least waste.
CAM in more detail.
Well you have all the measurements in the computer, why not use them twice. Get the computer to run a lathe, a milling machine, router. drilling machine etc. and you could make parts which are the right size and shape. This cuts down on human error so mistakes are less. To start off with the costs are high but once production starts the machines pay for themselves quickly because you don't have to pay as many people.
Careful though 'cause things go wrong. Lathe
tools wear out and break, machine parts wear and don't do the job as well. For
these reasons quality control
is used, this involves parts being taken off the production line every so often
and they are checked to see if they are up to standard. If not machines are
adjusted, tools replaced and so on.
CIM in more detail.
What if you had more than one factory or a very big factory? One part of the factory might be making 100 sets of legs per day for the CD rack while another part of the factory might only be able to make 50 tops in a day. Using computers can let you keep track of what is going on elsewhere so that everybody knows what everybody else is doing. Even deliveries can be worked out for the shortest route to save time and petrol. Fair clever eh? If you get nuts and bolts from another factory computers allow you to see how many are available and how long the will take to be delivered. So then, CIM helps to co-ordinate all the different stages of manufacturing/selling by using a central computer system. So the central computer updates all the others automatically so that everybody knows what is going on (this way you dont order things twice, forget to deliver, forget to order at all, it's all clever stuff).