Establishing A Computer Aided Manufacturing System To Extend The Capability Of Traditional Aircraft And Spacecraft Design Courses

1. Why do we need it ? Students in the design sequence began using Computer Aided Design (CAD) in 1983 and by 1993 the CAD system had evolved to the point of having the capability of doing 3dimensional solid modeling. At that time Dr. Jim Ladesic acquired a National Science Foundation Instrumentation and Laboratory Improvement Grant to acquire a stereolithography rapid prototyping system which could create actual parts from the CAD solid models. Students learned many lessons about the realities of making threedimensional shapes from this system and took great pride in showing off their designs. But the STL machine is limited to relatively small parts, about 9 inches in the longest dimension. And the polymer material made by this system is both expensive and sufficiently brittle that it cannot be subjected to any significant loads. The new CAM system described in this paper takes a another step closer to actual engineering practice. It incorporates a Computer Numerical Control (CNC) 3-axis milling machine which can work from the same database already established. This system can make much larger parts, up to eight feet long, and can make them from structurally testable materials.