For those who want to enhance a CNC by adding capabilities, Chris Robson, applications engineer for Minneapolis-headquartered machine tool dealer Concept Machine Tool – (Delafield) Wisconsin, gave a presentation titled "What Else is Inside this Box? Open Architecture CNC." His seminar took place Oct. 3 at the 15th biennial Wisconsin Manufacturing & Technology Show in the Exhibition Center at the Wisconsin State Fair Park, Milwaukee.

Robson said a CNC is capable of performing many new and innovative functions out of the box. "Come up with an idea and nine out of 10 times the CNC can make it happen."

Some of the examples he noted include providing remote production monitoring and scheduling, automated gage feedback, production and overall equipment efficiency data, and new CNC functionality, such as programmable spindle variation.

In addition, a CNC can accommodate numerous peripheral accessories, such as a vibration monitor and a programmable coolant nozzle. An example of the former is DTect-IT, a Windows application that communicated with custom USB sensors from Caron Engineering Inc., Wells, Maine, to effectively monitor any area of concern on a CNC machine tool or fixture. Spidercool from Dimensional Control Inc., South Windsor, Conn., is an example of the latter. The servo-driven, programmable coolant nozzle system is for vertical and horizontal machining centers and automatically and precisely aims high-pressure coolant at a tool's cutting edge.

Drivers and libraries are available to create a closed-loop system, Robson added. FOCAS2 Library from FANUC, for instance, is for developing Windows applications to communicate with a FANUC CNC via Ethernet or high-speed serial bus.

Some of the resources Robson recommended to get started are available at www.visualstudio.com, www.codeproject.com, www.stackoverflow.com and mva.microsoft.com.