Computer has become pervasive in all walks of life. Its impact is felt more in the industrial sector from the beginning. The use of computers for various activities in the industry is long in use. However, in the case of manufacturing industries it made a very substantial change in their working. The use of computer not only simplified many of the traditional manufacturing tasks but also made it almost impossible for a manufacturing industry to survive in the modern era without it. Thus, it is important for everyone concerned with the manufacturing industry to learn the use of computers.

Among the usages of computers in manufacturing, Computer Aided Design and Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAD/CAM) are by far the best known as well as the best applications. In order to remain competitive in the global economy, it is imperative that all the manufacturing industries adopt CAD/CAM. There is no escape!

In the earlier days of CAD/CAM development, the cost used to be prohibitive and did not allow the small and medium scale industries to adopt it. However, this has changed since the invention of the microprocessor and the rapid developments taking place in the very large scale integration (VLSI) of the electronic circuits. The cost of the computing equipment in the present stage is relatively low, and this allowed the development of a large market for these powerful computers. The mass manufacture techniques employed for the manufacture of computers have further reduced the cost. This has allowed the small and medium scale companies to use these powerful computers in their day-to-day operations.

Along with the developments in the hardware, the software, too, continued to develop at a similar pace. The present day software is easier to use and very powerful, thereby guaranteeing the results in a much shorter time than was possible earlier. This has prompted the small and medium scale enterprises to embrace CAD/CAM in a big way in the developed world. It is, therefore, not uncommon to see even small companies using CAD or CAM in some form or other to improve their productivity.

This book is aimed at providing the material related to CAD/CAM in such a way so as to allow the student and/or practising engineer to appreciate the application of these technologies in the real world. Considering the necessity to train future engineers in this important discipline, many engineering colleges worldwide are adopting CAD and CAM in many forms. However, the lack of a suitable book which can provide all the required material in a form suitable for teaching has been felt by many including this author. That has given impetus to develop a new book, which can provide all the necessary elements of this new technology without the need to refer many books. It is sincerely hoped that the new book will be appreciated and the various curricula in engineering colleges will be benefited by adopting this book for their courses on CAD and CAM.

This book is the outgrowth of the course material used by the author for teaching a number of postgraduate and undergraduate courses related to CAD, CNC machine tools, CAM, FMS and CIM. During the course of teaching these courses, the author used information available directly from the manufacturers rather than relying on the books alone as the books become outdated soon. This helps to get the latest information and the students are also able to appreciate the use of such material. As a result, a large number of illustrations provided in the book are of the most recent origin, and most of them are from the manufacturers themselves. Also, effort has been made to supplement the text with numerous illustrations to demonstrate the concepts and the functioning of these technologies.

The book is divided into 5 parts with each part providing a component of the CAD/CAM technology. They are: Hardware and Software Components, Design of Industrial Products, Manufacturing Aspects of Industrial Products, Role of Information Systems, and Integration of Manufacturing Systems. The coverage in each of these parts is varied with some very detailed while others are cursory to provide a basic insight. Such an approach is adopted in view of the trend followed in the teaching of this subject in a number of universities.

The part on Hardware and Software Components provides an introduction to the computer hardware concepts as are required for CAD/CAM systems along with details related to computer graphics, which becomes an essential part in all the CAD systems.

In Part II, Design of Industrial Products, CAD is introduced with a number of concepts and geometric modelling. The coverage is to the most extent restricted to the user viewpoint rather than the development viewpoint. It is the author’s belief that in the case of CAD this very important point is neglected in many a curricula. The underlying mathematics was deliberately omitted to facilitate the student to appreciate the use of CAD technology rather than go for the development side of it. Next the CAD standards, which become important in view of the different heterogeneous systems being used by many industries are presented. This is followed by a brief presentation of the actual drafting and modelling system use to explain the concepts presented earlier. In the analysis part, a very brief introduction to the finite element analysis techniques is provided.

In the part on the manufacturing aspects of industrial products, the use of Computer Numerical Control Machine Tools is covered comprehensively including the part programming aspects. The use of computer-aided part programming methods is also covered. Part IV covers the information requirements of the manufacturing enterprises. The need for information from the standpoint of computer usage is covered in this segment.

The book finally ends with a section on integration of manufacturing systems. A lot of synergy can be gained by integration rather than simply applying computers to various individual applications. Some of the integration requirements needed for computer applications are presented in this part.

With the material covered in this book, it is possible to use it for the following courses at the undergraduate level.

• CAD/CAM (entire book)
• CNC Manufacturing (Chapters 1, 9–16, 20, 22)
• CAM (Chapters 1, 2, 9–22)

The readers may notice shortcomings during the course of adoption of this book for their studies. They are requested to send such comments and suggestions related to the coverage and examples used in the book. I would appreciate and welcome any helpful constructive criticism for improvement in future editions.

P NAGESWARA RAO