Because of their being more flexible and their being more affordable, today’s CNC machining centers (and consequently, the woodworking industry) are getting more prominent and in the news lately. This upbeat mood seems prevalent among machinery experts around the country.

Amid today’s turbulent economic conditions, CNC automation becomes sensible, industry experts declared. They contend that automating the cutting process brings profits and that “customers want accurate parts, with less waste, less labor and shorter lead times.”

Technological advances

There is more upbeat news in CNC technology. Experts observed that advancement in software, the 4 and 5 axis capabilities, and other related technological progressions are born faster and that the machinery is getting more versatile.

For most shops and factories, CNC router and machining centers are the hearts and souls. Today’s five-axis routers allow the customers complete flexibility without requiring expensive aggregates.

These flexible machines have both the 3- and 5-axis routers at the same time, which gave them the best of both worlds.

Innovations

Even without fanfare, there is a growing list of innovations in the CNC woodworking industry that has kept it going and it is pretty exciting.

Some of the cutting edge innovations include 5-axis heads, moldings units, expanded range of aggregates, and the ability of the pods and rails to be electronically positioned. All these have removed the potential of human error from the equation.

Dual zone machine

In the nesting environment, the new ability to have a dual zone machine that can handle full sheets while providing a load/unload time of zero had drastically changed the throughput of nested-based machines. CNC machines are now flexible enough to perform nearly any machining operation because of the 4- and 5-axis capability and the proper tooling.

The technology is not exactly new but there had been significant advancements in the programming and control software. Programming is now an extension of product design rather than a separate department by itself.

Mechanical advancements

There is an increased overall performance because there had been faster axis acceleration/deceleration. Most mechanical advancements, actually, are in the area of speed.

Forecasts

With the new developments in CNC already on the horizons, experts and scientists had been giving away some fearless but fact-based forecasts. All of them seemed to agree that better and faster machines will be available in the near future.

Some believe that CNC machines will have more integrated loading and unloading systems. Others foresee further integration between CAD programs and the CAM software for the machine.

This, experts say, will make the connection between product development and actual production easier. Others declare that CNC machining operations will be completed without repositioning the part.

Powerful drive system

Other experts predict that in the future there will be faster and more powerful drive systems for the CNC machine to be more accurate. Likewise, the structures will be improved to handle all these power in the drive systems.

Ultimately, machine manufacturers will strive for more energy efficiency, increased productivity, zero set up time, reduced maintenance, and reduced cost of ownership.

The future of CNC woodworking had never looked rosier.