{"id":1614,"date":"2015-10-08T12:49:47","date_gmt":"2015-10-08T19:49:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.plm.automation.siemens.com\/t5\/News-NX-Manufacturing\/CNC-machining-with-robots\/ba-p\/317392"},"modified":"2026-03-26T09:17:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T13:17:30","slug":"cnc-machining-with-robots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/nx-manufacturing\/cnc-machining-with-robots\/","title":{"rendered":"CNC machining with robots"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><P>Can robots really replace CNC machining centers?<\/P><\/p>\n<p><P>CNC machining has long been the domain of specialized machine tools. Boring mills, vertical turret lathes (VTLs), five-axis trunnion tables and even Swiss-style lathes feature specialized configurations meant to ideally solve one subtype of NC machining challenge. This is done by maximizing structural efficiency for a particular tool application, but in every case the most limiting factor is the work envelope. It becomes expensive to scale up these machines to large envelope sizes because their specialized structure has to scale as well.<\/P><\/p>\n<p><P>Robot cells are a much more affordable way to cover large, multi-axis work envelopes. For a host of relatively low-force machining functions, such as trimming and grinding, deburring, polishing, linishing, gluing, light cutting and more, it is easy to expand the work envelope using robot arms that can reach a long way and contort to match any required tool axis.<\/P><\/p>\n<p><P>These machining-style tasks are different from the more traditional robotic tasks, since continuous, precision motion relative to a workpiece is required. These contrast with more typical positioning tasks like part handling and spot welding. It can be challenging to program this type of motion for robots using a manual approach or some of the existing robotics programming software tools.<\/P><\/p>\n<p><P>Siemens PLM Software has integrated its proven <a href=\"http:\/\/www.plm.automation.siemens.com\/en_us\/products\/tecnomatix\/manufacturing-simulation\/index.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Tecnomatix\u00ae software for advanced robotic solutions<\/A> with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.plm.automation.siemens.com\/en_us\/products\/nx\/for-manufacturing\/cam\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">NX CAM<\/A> software to provide the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.plm.automation.siemens.com\/en_us\/products\/nx\/for-manufacturing\/cam\/index.shtml#lightview%26uri=tcm:1023-241893%26title=NX-CAM-Robotics-Programming-Fact-Sheet-50716%26docType=pdf\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\"><EM>NX CAM Robotics&nbsp;Programming<\/EM><\/A>&nbsp;solution. This makes it easy to program a robot to cut, trim, linish, etc., using familiar NX CAM computer numerical control (CNC) programming methods. <EM>NX CAM Robotics<\/EM> Programming software lets you design, simulate, validate, optimize and offline program your industrial robots for machining-type tasks. This solution greatly increases the efficiency and quality of these high-precision, multi-axis robotic operations. Featuring the intuitive and widely-accepted NX\u2122 software 3D environment, the software combines the simplicity of CNC programming with the power to accurately create, control and simulate complex robotic machining processes.<\/P><\/p>\n<p><P>Read the complete <a href=\"http:\/\/www.plm.automation.siemens.com\/en_us\/products\/nx\/for-manufacturing\/cam\/index.shtml#lightview%26uri=tcm:1023-241893%26title=NX-CAM-Robotics-Programming-Fact-Sheet-50716%26docType=pdf\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">NX CAM Robotics Programming fact sheet<\/A>.&nbsp;<\/P><\/p>\n<p><P>View&nbsp;a 4 minute video, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.plm.automation.siemens.com\/t5\/TV-NX-Manufacturing\/Video-NX-CAM-Robotics-Programming-Overview\/ba-p\/317554\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Introducing NX CAM Robotics Programming<\/A>,&#8221;&nbsp;&nbsp;to learn how to use the software.<\/P><\/p>\n<p><P><span class=\"lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline\" style=\"width: 999px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2019\/09\/3RobotConfigurations-1.png\" alt=\"3RobotConfigurations.png\" title=\"3RobotConfigurations.png\" \/><\/span><\/P><br \/>\n<P><STRONG>Check out Siemens&#8217; Manufacturing 360 tablet app!<\/STRONG><\/P><br \/>\n<P>Explore the world of digital manufacturing. See how Siemens\u2019 software <BR \/>for part and assembly manufacturing enable more efficient and nimble operations.&nbsp;<\/P><br \/>\n<P>Download the FREE Manufacturing 360 app from&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/apps\/details?id=air.com.siemens.tecnomatix360&amp;hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google Play<\/A>&nbsp;or the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/app\/manufacturing-360\/id498450268?mt=8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Apple Store<\/A>.&nbsp;<\/P><\/p>\n<p><P><span class=\"lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline\" style=\"width: 280px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2019\/09\/Lady-MFG-360_Tablet-app-12.jpg\" alt=\"Lady MFG-360_Tablet-app.jpg\" title=\"Lady MFG-360_Tablet-app.jpg\" \/><\/span><\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Can robots really replace CNC machining centers? <\/p>\n<p> CNC machining has long been the domain of specialized machine tools. Boring mills, vertical turret lathes (VTLs), five-axis trunnion tables&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51290,"featured_media":1620,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spanish_translation":"","french_translation":"","german_translation":"","italian_translation":"","polish_translation":"","japanese_translation":"","chinese_translation":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[208],"industry":[],"product":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-1614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-robotic-automation"],"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2019\/09\/3RobotConfigurations-1.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/nx-manufacturing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/nx-manufacturing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/nx-manufacturing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/nx-manufacturing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51290"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/nx-manufacturing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1614"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/nx-manufacturing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1622,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/nx-manufacturing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1614\/revisions\/1622"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/nx-manufacturing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/nx-manufacturing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/nx-manufacturing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/nx-manufacturing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1614"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/nx-manufacturing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=1614"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/nx-manufacturing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=1614"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/nx-manufacturing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}