Modern Manufacturing Command Performance (1963)

[Music] we must have modern Manufacturing as modern as we can make [Music] it modern manufacturing is a Command Performance Command Performance well we usually have enough command of our process to get the performance we want of course it takes a lot of time to get from a set of new drawings to a finished product but time is something we don't always have the period from development to product is growing shorter and shorter as someone said time has collapsed now let's try this say the Complete product DEC and we're changing it with a modification of the type XR now suppose all you needed to do was to say into a transmitter 3 Type 20K modification XR orders to the plant that's right you merely Define what you want and in a fraction of the time it would take conventionally your products manufactured assembled and ready to ship and that component we were talking about is only one of many making up the Complete product h how could you do all that so quickly not only so quickly but in much less space you'd need a much larger plant to do this by conventional methods oh this is not conventional not at all this is a modern plant really modern what do you mean by that when you give your command over the mic which may be in the plant or remote almost anywhere the information feeds into a voice converter which translates your language into a language which the computer can understand the computer analyzes your request then draws on its store of information to produce a series of tapes which feed into a production control center this Center not only controls each of the machines but the flow of Parts as well acting as a scheduling unit now all of the manufacturing units are actuated basic shapes are rooted to production centers for complete processing completed components are then checked automatically by inspection machines then send on to a robot Sub assembler subassemblies proceed on to a robot for final assembly and then on to shipping That's What I Call Command Performance of course I've oversimplified the process a bit you mean you've been putting me on don't you not exactly this is not as fantastic as you might think take the computer for example computers are fairly common today although we still must talk to them with cards or tape rather than directly but they're getting more sophisticated all the time and from this information a control tape is produced control tape for what to control a manufacturing process [Music] now these machines are in existence today inexpensive tape control drill [Music] presses the more sophisticated turret drill presses [Music] vertical turret laads capable of high accuracy contouring [Music] take controlled Engine lades with equally exacting contouring and thread cutting [Music] capabilities High Precision multi-axis profiling Mills Machining centers that change tools Mill drill bore re [Music] and in many cases they can complete the entire manufacturing process in just one setting fully capable of doing that job of yours we were talking about and even more now what different tools would you need for this piece six different Milling Cutters four sizes of drills four emers six Taps and four boring bars and where you needed eight machines to use these tools the whole batch is loaded into a magazine for use by this one machine all the instructions to the machine are on a punch tape the Intelligence on the tape tells the machine exactly what to do this is called numerical control which is one of the means of using mathematical definitions to furnish intelligence a machine can understand there are many methods of accomplishing this however it's done it certainly shortens the chain of command and greatly reduces the opportunities for a breakdown in Communications there's the same casting you would have started with in your conventional shop but notice there's only clamps required the machine itself will even make its fixtures from tape control if necessary and there you are all the Machining done in only 45 hours how long would it have taken in your shop oh about 300 hours to machine and 26 weeks of lead time after toed up remember the lead time here was only 2 weeks if you need a second or third or fourth piece you get them in a matter of hours all exactly alike now that's performance what happened to automatic inspection you were dreaming about that was no dream they're already in existence too and research and development are making them better all the [Music] time on this machine a probe is Guided by a tape similar to the one used in manufacturing the [Music] part the measurements are recorded for inspection and [Music] record but you still need an original Det tail drawing don't you not necessarily but if you want one it can be made from a numerical control tape too operating an engineering machine often the drawing can be made at the same time the part is being made using instructions from the same [Music] tape I noticed the loading and removal from the machine is still conventional but it needn't be you'll find automatic loaders and transfer mechanisms on a lot of production lines today say [Music] this automatic material handler remembers every sheet in its inventory and will deliver it undamaged in seconds this robot manipulator will perform a variety of handling [Music] operations it can be easily taught to load un Lo and assemble Parts because of its electronic [Music] brain so you see we have practically all the elements of our plan to the Future it's just a matter of time before someone puts them all together to make the dream a reality [Music] I don't know that anyone has ever produced a crystal ball on one of these machines but you don't need to be a fortune teller to realize that our success in Aerospace depends upon our national capability to produce combat ready systems with complete reliability we must produce first best and at the lowest possible costs which are consistent with reliability and reproducibility [Music] this means that we must be able to manufacture from all sorts of new and exotic materials it means we must be able to produce structural members with a high degree of configuration complexity it means we must produce with greater dimensional control some large rocket engine inducers for example can't be produced to design concept by conventional manufacturing methods it means that we must produce components which have structural Integrity this aircraft bulkhead was built up of over 90 different parts requiring more than a, rivets and high strength Fasteners you can imagine how long it took to Tool machine and assemble all these parts and you can imagine the possible human error involved the more modern one piece bulkheads have greater structural Integrity but they were still expensive these onepiece bulkheads were first produced by conventional methods using specially designed Tracer control rotary tables with many coordinated overlay templates and Tracer pads patterns it took 160 hours of Machining time to produce one bulkhead and that considerable cost the part is now programmed on a numerically controlled skin Mill to machine two at a time this requires only two sets of vacuum Chucks and nine reels of tape the time reduced to only 9 hours per part and the cost reduced by 80% in addition there is a 25% reduction in weight Command Performance I'll say but you can best get it with numerically controlled machines [Music] can this type of control be applied to other types of machines certainly there are machines that automatically position and punch all types of panels [Music] machines which build up rocket motor cases by the controlled winding of glass fil [Music] machines that position connector panels for [Music] wiring machines that position and make the wiring connections on assembled electrical panels [Music] machines for drilling printed circuit boards [Music] machines for inserting the components in these [Music] boards machines for spot Welding which saves 72 2% in labor costs this machine has proved invaluable in spot welding fuselage [Music] sections the more complex Fusion welding also can be performed by numerical control the tape not only controls the positioning and movement of the arc but also the welding factors gas flow current and the like in guiding The Arc the control permits blind welding down through one structure natural member to fuse it with a hidden member below the result a stronger weld a member with more structural Integrity a more reliable weapon system tubes can be bent by numerical control also tail pipes that fit any car [Music] precisely or the miles of Plumbing used in modern missiles and all without the need for separate Jigs and setup time [Music] by far the most versatile and flexible are the numerical controlled machines for one piece or production runs they're the answer to involved Machining operations and for Machining control you can't beat instructions which are fixed and not subject to human error or emotion why this tape could be sent anywhere in the world to a similar numerically controlled machine and it would produce a part inter chable with the one produced here from this tape may we backtrack a moment surely just how do the instructions get to the machine in the first place well let's begin with your own sketch of some part make it complicated we'll hog it out of a block let's use Master Dimension okay there you are with all the essential dimensions but scarcely something a machinist could work from that took you about an hour now we'll take this to a programmer as the next step in tape [Music] preparation and there's the program let's see that took about an hour and 45 5 minutes add that to the hour for the sketch and the 5 minutes it took us to get here and the total's 2 hours and 50 minutes those words on there look sort of familiar but different that's right they're kind of pigeon English this information will command the tool to start from the point called set point which is defined as the point with coordinates 1 1 1 with the tool on the right it is instructed to go right along the line base at this point in the operation the tool is sent forward to start cutting a previously defined Circle about a previously defined point two now here's that circle on the sketch you can see it's a language that you can readily understand and use and one the computer can understand too as of now conventional computers do not accept oral commands So the instructions are put on punched cards [Music] tape we're moving right along just 10 minutes for that job for a total of about 3 hours now the computer operator gives the commands to the computer which translates them into machine language and here are the commands we'll take to the machine we've now spent only only 3 hours and 20 minutes that's really chopping Down lead time isn't it yes I expect it would have taken me weeks to design and tool for this job it might be a good idea to think about modernizing then mhm this whole system's called numerical control well the machines are operated by numerical control when you talk to a computer though well that's a little higher order of communication I suppose you might call it symbolic control at that point look your part is already being manufactured [Music] there's your part Just 4 hours after you started making the sketch you want to check it out you bet amazing absolutely amazing you see what happened was that the machine did What machines can do best and humans did what humans can do best you did the designing the creating the programmer planned the process from his knowledge of Machining and the particular machine and being human you were able to start a chain of command to the machine a very short and very exact chain as a result you obtained a superior performance from the machine far better than by conventional methods and you get the same performance time after time because the commands cannot change and that's why you call it Command Performance that's right well what about the actual joining forming or removal of metal what's new along these line plenty Electron Beam welding for one [Music] thing here even two dissimilar metals can be permanently fused together by the high velocity electron bombardment in its vacuum chamber electrolytic Machining for another the cooling holes in this turbine blade were eroded to exacting tolerances by this stem drill the hollow drill electrodes never touch the material so they need not be reset or replaced [Music] just the opposite of electroplating huh correct this finished turbine bucket was shaped from high temperature material and here are the shaped electrodes that were used to do it the process replaces a dozen conventional machines and produces a yearly Savings of about 80% when subjected to enough pressure Metals become plastic and are easily formed this vertical Shear forger produces turbine compressor shafts at a savings of $1,500 per [Music] part similar machines will turn out shapes such as cylinders cones and rocket motor cases from practically any metal including many of the Exotic Alloys or suppose your product needs formed Parts like this this machine pre-stresses metal to its yield point and has a tension control system so that forming is accomplished with high accuracy this jet engine part was formed from Ren 41 in Just 2 minutes and the savings over conventional methods is 80% a similar type of process will give you Savings of up to 90% on Drawn components like this and permits the use of inexpensive dieses this blank holder adapted to a conventional press pre-stresses the metal and makes it more flowable in plastic by adjusting the stress almost any metal can be formed using the same Dy normally three draws would be required to produce this part with 270 hours of hand workk for finishing but here it is produced in one stroke holding its shape without spring back and maintaining that shape throughout subsequent welding this hydrofor turns out complex shaped Parts in seconds that formerly took hours to fabricate assemble and weld the rubber bladder reduces tooling to only one inexpensive [Music] die want more savings and forming Metals perhaps electromagnetic metal forming is the answer [Music] [Music] now this process uses powerful magnetic fields to Sage expand compress coin sh here and assemble conductive Metals without mechanical contact with the work this machine uses the explosive power of man-made lightning to form [Music] Parts what about foring [Music] how about that that's high energy rate forging [Music] these machines will deliver a terrific amount of energy in a split second the forgees as tungsten or even cast iron as well as the usual materials High tonnage mechanical presses also offer great Savings in the production of prision forgings for testing electronic systems there's automatic testing equipment here is a complete check out of a wiring harness this machine checks missiles computers SE systems and the like [Music] the results of the tests can be recorded on a printed readout and the savings well in addition to the time this piece of equipment replaces 150 separate pieces of test equipment required on many of the complicated checkouts imagine what all these methods of modern manufacturing are going to do for the designers and of course you've seen only a few of the many new methods available today [Music] no need for them to be limited by the restrictions of conventional manufacturing they can now design a part to do the best job without compromise with manufacturing limitations I doubt if there's a machinist in the world who could have turned off this part and met the required specifications yet it's a vital part and I know that without modern Machining it could never have been produced in time to get our missiles in operation on schedule and believe me we must be on schedule in these areas you know today in some sections of the world the smelting of iron is still a primitive process [Music] and metal forming is equally crude but some of our men manufacturing processes still border on the Primitive while even the most Modern Standard machine tools are efficient for General applications they will not readily accept the numerical control input so vital for the effective production of Aerospace Vehicles we must modernize our manufacturing [Music] methods and go from design concept to finished product as quickly as possible we must keep the wheels turning the best way we know how we must apply what we know today and search Forever better [Music] methods this is a Command Performance for the survival of industry and our country say do you still have that clipboard sure uh here it is why I want to write myself a note so I won't forget something see this is going to be a Command Performance too good idea because the defense department expects its contractors to maintain a modern base in their facilities in keeping with Vance of Aerospace technology we need the productivity reliability and repeatability that only modern manufacturing can provide and we all need the savings which can be affected in both time and