A CNC router, short for computer numerical control router, is a computer-controlled cutting machine that typically mounts a handheld router as its spindle, used to cut wood, composites, metals, plastics, glass and foam. It can take over the work of many separate carpentry-shop machines at once, including the panel saw, the wood shaper and the boring machine, and can also cut joinery such as mortise and tenon joints. The concept is close to that of a CNC milling machine: rather than an operator routing by hand, its tool paths are controlled by the machine's own computer, and it is one of several kinds of tool that exist in a CNC-driven variant.
Facts
Introduced When (Circa)Descends from numerical control (NC) machine tools first built in the 1940s and 1950s, before dedicated CNC routers emerged as computing costs fell. 1 OriginThe CNC router traces to early numerical control (NC) machines, which added motorized, tape-programmed motion to existing machine tools rather than being a purpose built invention. 1 Introduced era (class) In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Numerical Control (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationOverview sectionQuote, Overview section
The first NC machines were built in the 1940s and 1950s, based on existing tools that were modified with motors that moved the tool or part to follow points fed into the system on punched tape or magnetic tape.
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