The history of CNC machines dates back to the end of World War 2, where the first CNC parts were made for the aerospace industry. The history of CNC can indeed be directly linked to the way, the need for precision parts for aircrafts at the end of the war meaning that CNC was born. The actual date for the transition from NC to CNC, and the real birth of CNC as we know it is considered to be 1949, John Parsons developing the very first CNC parts in Massachusetts.
A comparison between the first machine made by Parsons and the ones that you see today in CNC machining shops make the very first invention of a 28 inch spindle seem very primitive. But the truth is that although there are progressions within the history of CNC machines on a virtually daily basis, the basic principles have always stayed the same. This turning point in industry has seen so many advances in the last decades that the machines that we find today are nothing short of incredible.
There were many alterations to the first machine, and the 1949 machine certainly lacked the accuracy of modern machines that you find today. It was around 1954 that accuracy became a lot better, and this can be seen as another important turning point in CNC. The first machines to be made in the 20th century however were huge and cumbersome, and so were the computers that controlled them. If you think about the development of the home computer, and think of the difference in size between the first ever computer and the laptops of today, you can also gauge the difference in size between the very first CNC machines and those of today.
John Parsons can really be seen as the Godfather of CNC, and he was awarded the Joseph Marie Jacquard memorial in 1968. The machines created by Parsons were worlds apart from the NC machines that came before, a primitive NC machine being controlled by the human hand and also nowhere near as safe as the machines of today.
Just like computers, overtime, CNC machines have not just become smaller, but they have also become far more affordable. What this means is that even modern CNC companies and individual engineers are able to produce their very own CNC parts as well as owning CNC machines. The history of CNC is an extremely important part of the history of not just our country, but the history of the world. With CNC technology being used everywhere over the globe, the need for human intervention on factory floors is becoming almost extinct.
The use of CNC machines means that precision engineered parts can be produced rapidly and with high grade precision, meaning that they are therefore far more affordable to the consumer than the parts that would have been turned or milled by hand prior to CNC. The history of CNC machines is a topic of great interest for budding engineers, and for anyone who has an interest in just how our world is progressing on a day to day basis and becoming faster and more efficient in everything that it does.
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