The speed, repeatability, and efficiency of modern automotive manufacturing would be impossible without automotive CNC machine software.

The automotive industry produces over 90 million motor vehicles per year. This is incredible, as vehicles are made up of thousands of individual components that are either directly manufactured with CNC (Computer Numerical Control) machines or their tooling is made using CNC machines. The speed, repeatability, and efficiency of modern automotive manufacturing would be impossible without automotive CNC machine (Computer-Aided Manufacturing) software. It’s an often unseen but critical part of the automotive development process.

What is CAM?

CAM is essentially software that is used to prepare parts designed in CAD (Computer-Aided Design) for CNC machining. CAM creates the machine code that tells the machine where, how fast, and with what tool to cut the material into the final part.

Learn more about what CAM is here.

How is CAM used in the automotive CNC machine industry?

The automotive industry makes heavy use of automation due to large-scale production lines that are required to manufacture a high volume of vehicles per year. Auto machining finds its way into every step of the vehicle development process, from initial designs carved from clay using a gantry-style 5-axis CNC machine to the mechanical components required to make the engine work.

Manufacturing a vehicle requires multiple CNC processes that consist of but are not limited to machining complex organic shapes, drilling, tapping, multiple tool changes, measuring, and surface finishing. Without CAM, these high production rates could simply not be achieved.

Without CAM capability, all the machining operations required to create complex and simple automotive CNC machined parts would need to be programmed manually. This would simply be impossible as thousands of lines of coding are required to create even the simplest part. As such, CAM cannot be separated from today’s advanced CNC machines which can machine on 5 axes and change tooling during manufacturing.

Some of the key advantages of automotive CNC machine solutions for the industry are:

• Productivity: There is an undeniable increase in productivity over manually entered code. Software packages are simply faster than human operators, and can create complex tool paths. These tool paths can also be posted to multiple machines. Cycle times are also reduced due to intelligent tool path creation.
• Precision: The automotive industry relies on a high level of precision for multiple interconnecting parts and components to fit together in a predictable way. This process reliability is made much easier with a capable CAM package.
• Cost savings: CAM offers a vast reduction in set-up time for manufacturing. Parts can be set up in a fixture and the manufacturing can be simulated to detect any possible errors before any chips fly.
• Advanced capabilities: Tools like generative design and topological optimization have resulted in designs that are lighter, stronger, and cheaper to produce. However, the shapes that come out of these algorithms are often very organic and need advanced CAM to manufacture.
• Safety: CAM can be used to make sure that the tool paths created do not result in any crashes of the machine, which could pose a risk to an operator and seriously damage the machine.

How is CAM evolving?

CAM software is advancing along with Industry 4.0 trends. Manufacturing is being integrated with IoT and robotics, with newer CAM systems being capable of integrating and simulating the interaction between multiple machines. This can include the loading of material, manufacturing, removal of the completed part, and automatic testing of the required tolerances and dimensions.

Cloud-based manufacturing allows for more flexibility when it comes to collaboration, as version control is automatically maintained due to the nature of cloud systems. This also means that the file can be shared and viewed by other team members who can then comment on the design and CAM processes before manufacturing commences.

Autodesk Fusion for automotive CNC machining

CAM is intricately linked to modern automotive manufacturing. Manually operated and coded machines are no longer useful in the high-paced manufacturing that is a hallmark of the automotive industry. As such, choosing the right CAM software application is critical to manufacturing efficiency, cost, and productivity. Autodesk Fusion is a powerful cloud-based CAD/CAM solution that can take your automotive part or vehicle designs from part to final product designs all within one ecosystem. Explore how Fusion can help integrate your automotive part and vehicle design and manufacturing processes today.