What Is an NC Router?
An NC router is a device that uses numerical control (NC) technology to cut wood, plastic, and metal materials with a blade.
Once numerical control data is created, the same product can be produced many times with the same accuracy. NC routers are a type of machine tool and have a long history as one of the first automated machining technologies.
They automate traditional manual cutting operations and enable fast, accurate, and efficient machining. It is particularly good at machining complex curved surfaces and drilling holes. Today, NC routers are also called CNC (Computed NC) because of their computer numerical control capability. The computer-controlled nature of this equipment makes it suitable for mass production, as well as for advanced cutting operations.
CNC technology has led to the development of NC routers that can process a wide variety of materials and are widely used in manufacturing industries such as automotive, furniture, and construction materials. They will continue to be an increasingly important piece of equipment as demand grows in industrial fields where precision machining is required.
Uses of NC Routers
NC routers are used for cutting wood, plastic, and metal materials. Numerical control technology enables high-precision and high-speed processing and is characterized by its superiority in processing products with fine details and complex shapes that are difficult to achieve by hand.
It is also widely used as indispensable equipment for the production of prototype parts and small-lot parts for products. For example, it can be used in a wide range of industrial fields, including commercial products, home appliances, housing equipment, and automotive products. Since prototype parts and small-lot parts are generally small in quantity, manual processing reduces productivity. NC routers can process a large number of parts at one time by creating numerically controlled data.
In addition, NC routers are also used to process molds for molding resin parts. Molds are required for the manufacture of resin parts, but advanced processing technology is needed to manufacture the molds. NC routers play an important role in the manufacture of molds because they enable high-precision cutting.
NC routers are not only widely used in the manufacturing industry because of their ability to handle a wide variety of materials, but also have a wide range of application areas, including the production of crafts and the processing of building materials.
Principle of NC Routers
The principle of NC router lies in processing parts by numerical control. The part is fixed to the table on the NC router by a chuck and is processed by a rotating blade from above. The movement of the blade or table is controlled by the numerically controlled data to be processed. Some NC routers are equipped with a device that automatically switches the blade, allowing the user to change the blade depending on the part to be processed. Some devices can process multiple parts at the same time.
NC routers require numerical control data, called NC data, for processing. NC data can be directly input into an NC control panel, but this takes a lot of time, so these days it is more common to convert CAD/CAM data.
CAD is software for design, and CAM is a system that creates NC router machining data based on the shape data created on CAD. NC routers are widely used in the manufacturing industry.
Types of NC Routers
There are three main types of NC routers: NC router for woodworking, NC router for metal, and NC router for plastic.
1. NC Router for Woodworking
NC routers specialized for woodworking are suitable for processing wood products. Since the blade can be switched according to the type and thickness of wood, a wide range of wood types can be processed. Also, it is capable of high-precision processing and can produce fine parts and ornaments for woodworking products.
2. Metal NC Router
This NC router is specialized for metal processing and can switch blades in consideration of the strength and tenacity of the metal material. It is suitable for fabricating metal parts and processing machinery and can be used for mass production because of its high accuracy and high-speed processing.
3. NC Router for Plastic
This NC router is specialized for processing plastic materials and is suitable for manufacturing plastic products. There are many types of plastics, and by selecting the appropriate blade for each material, high-precision machining is possible.
In addition, plastic materials are softer and more sensitive to heat than metal, so care must be taken in temperature control. NC routers for plastics are designed with these characteristics in mind.