MAKER: Generations of NC machining through laboratory work

Numerical Control of machine tools had a rapid development over the past seven decades and has claimed a dominant place for itself in manufacturing. From a user's point of view its development can be seen as four generations. Each generation had its additions and enhancements to its predecessor. Makers are individuals who design and build new devices and share their experiences with others. In order to build new devices however they have to know contemporary manufacturing technologies available at that given time. In order to encourage students to become makers a sequence of machining assignments, taking them through all four generations of NC machining, have been developed at United Arab Emirates University. This paper describes them and the artefacts will be displayed in the conference.