CNC platform celebrates its jubilee

Siemens brought Sinumerik onto the market in 1960. It was the world's first industrial numerical control (NC), and immediately increased the productivity and flexibility of manufacturing processes. Nowadays, customers use Sinumerik to network all areas of their production operation in order to exchange data between the development and design departments right through to actual manufacture on the CNC machines. Uwe Frank, CEO of Siemens Motion Control Systems, said, "Sinumerik has made Siemens the leader of technology and innovations in the CNC field for fifty years. It started with the first NC, then progressed through the CNC with a microprocessor to the first CNC-integrated safety solution. We're continuing to invest specifically in research and development so that we can keep on writing this success story in the future."

As one of Europe's most important electrical equipment suppliers, Siemens brought the first industrial NC onto the market in 1960 under the "Sinumerik" brand name. The first path control was developed on the basis of separate electronic components. Shortly afterwards, the Sinumerik versions 200 and 300 followed, which were controls for turning, milling, grinding and nibbling, and for electro-hydraulic drives. Sinumerik 500C, the first computerized numerical control (CNC), was introduced in 1973, initially only for turning and milling applications. Inexpensive microprocessors then speeded up developments. This enabled Siemens to offer a DNC network for universal program management and transfer for the first time in the mid 1970s. Just three years later, the Sinumerik System 8 appeared, a CNC with multi-channel capability and an integrated programmable logic controller (PLC). This was suitable not only for turning and milling, but also for drilling and nibbling machines. The Sinumerik Primo was produced at the same time, a compact CNC, no bigger than a shoebox, with specific functions for grinding. In 1981, Siemens presented the Sinumerik System 3, a CNC with an application-specific operator interface and graphic programming functions. As from the mid 1980s, the principle of "openness" determined the design of subsequent CNC generations, such as the Sinumerik 810 and 820. Since that time, machine manufacturers have been able to design their own operator interfaces, and add individual items, such as images and menu trees. Some ten years later Siemens introduced the Sinumerik 840D, a CNC for the high-end of the performance range. It has a digital drive link and an open NC kernel, which enables software components to be integrated into the CNC. In 1996, Siemens launched Sinumerik Safety Integrated, the first CNC-integrated safety solution. Just one year later, ShopMill and ShopTurn were presented. These are workshop-oriented graphic programming interfaces which enable workpieces to be programmed through a graphic user interface. In order to increase the productivity of machine manufacturers and users, Siemens then extended its range to include web-based Condition Monitoring and Mechatronic Support for machine simulation and virtual prototyping. In 2005, Siemens presented the Sinumerik 840D sl, an open and innovative CNC for up to 31 axes, and the Sinumerik 802D sl, for turning and milling machines in the lower and mid performance ranges. Shortly afterwards, Siemens offered efficient workpiece machining solutions for the entire CAD/CAM/CNC process chain. At the 2009 EMO trade show for machine tools, Siemens exhibited not only the compact Sinumerik 828D CNC and the Sinumerik Operate interface, but also the Sinumerik MDynamics technology package for milling applications.

Uwe Haeberer, head of Machine Tools at the Siemens Drive Technologies Division, said, "Siemens is a highly appreciated partner serving the world's mechanical engineering industry throughout the entire life cycles of machines and products. We provide training courses for machine operators, for example. And three years ago, we built a Technology and Application Center in Erlangen specifically for technology transfer, and equipped it with state-of-the-art machine tools."

You can find further information on the Internet at: www.siemens.com/sinumerik