Topic: Blueprints

[70CB750]

I am just curious, back in my day in the factory the production would be getting blueprints from the desinger's office to work with - is it still the same or is it paperless now?

[wowbagger]

I'm just guessing but I would assume they don't bother with a print out and just send them the original CAD file.

[cabrala]

I am just curious, back in my day in the factory the production would be getting blueprints from the desinger's office to work with - is it still the same or is it paperless now?

I'll assume you're asking more about the manufacturing process of motorcycles, automobiles, etc. and for that I am interested in hearing some responses...

But, I can tell you that from the construction/architecture/fabrication process, we still use blueprints, shop drawings, etc. in hard copy form. There are such digital programs that exist from which information can be passed along, edited and red-lined but the actual making of something comes from a piece of paper.

I would imagine all things could become paperless, but I like having $0.02 paper in my shop than a $400 iPad or something.

[70CB750]

Thank you.  You got it, I am curious what does the machinist in a medium to big factory work with on the end.

Now I remember the company I buy steel from - Arlington Iron Works - always has blueprints of projects in the office - I guess the creation process changed, but the final output is still hard copy/paper to go to the shop.

[RFogelsong]

My current company (3.5 mil a year business) still uses hard copy drafts from the draftsmen for things like tooling and first runs.  After initial production it's process books.  We do have the capability of giving the tool room CAD models that can be put directly into their CNC machines and we occasionally use that.

[Mo]

I worked for an cooling tower manufacturing company in the engineering department a few summers ago. Everything was done in CAD, and sent to the factory (in a different state) over the servers.

[cabrala]

I worked for an cooling tower manufacturing company in the engineering department a few summers ago. Everything was done in CAD, and sent to the factory (in a different state) over the servers.

But does the factory print out your specs/drawings for fabrication or do they directly input all digital work into a machine and have it pump out parts? I would imagine it is not entirely paperless on their end, even though the transfer of information is.

I like this topic though. I am sure there is some place that has a completely paperless model in place; from concept through production...

[Bailgang]

I work as a fitter for a structural steel fabrication plant and it's both cad and paper prints for us. For me I get a paper print but that print is a copy of a cad file. The inspectors on the other hand walk around with big I-pads, when I'm done with something they'll scan the bar code for that beam, frame, truss or what ever it is I assembled and the cad file for that piece will show up on their I-pad.

[333]

I think that whether we're talking jobsite, or factory floor, a computer isn't the best medium for having a reference for the work.  The thing that's changed is how those plans/blueprints were created. I work one day a week in a boat shop. We're doing 2 big projects now. One from newly created plans(from CAD software), and one from plans done old school, but both are paper.

[scottly]

In the late '90s, I was working with a friend, who has been working in the machining field since the early '70s, to CNC adapters to fit electric motors to automobile transmissions. I would do the design work on CAD, and email him the CAD drawing. He would then import the CAD file into a CAD/CAM program, and turn the drawing into the actual code that was fed into the CNC mill to machine the part, and email the code back to me.
I've been learning to do the CAM portion recently; here is the first part of a program I coded yesterday, and a pic of the computer-rendered part..

; 72d.AGC*
 ; 03/27/13, 02:24PM *
 G49 G40 G90 G17*
T1 M6*
 ; TOOL 1 *
 ; *
N100 G0 G90 X0.0 Y5.437*
N101 M3 S1500*
N102 M1 L1*
N103 G43 H1 Z0.1*
N104 G98 G81 Z-0.05 R0.05 F4.0*
N105 X0.7158 Y5.0934*
N106 X1.3368 Y4.6621*
N107 X0.6893 Y3.9092*
N108 X0.1488 Y4.2604*

 

[FrankenFrankenstuff]

I work in a prototype model shop and....blueprints are...what? A lot of the projects I work with are so over designed and under thought out that I get stuck in the middle of an idiotic "engineers design" and a deadline. It is my job to take that non blueprinted turd and figure out how to manufacture it. With the was of 3d printing the designs have just gotten worse and worse.

[JeffSTL]

I am a CNC machinist (14 axis Citizen Swiss screw machines currently). Smallish company of about 40 employees with no idea about the company's revenues. I use and program from prints everyday. I don't believe we would ever run code generated by someone else's cad/cam. Every shop I've worked in or been in works from print on the floor even if the program is generated in cad/cam.

[70CB750]

In the late '90s, I was working with a friend, who has been working in the machining field since the early '70s, to CNC adapters to fit electric motors to automobile transmissions. I would do the design work on CAD, and email him the CAD drawing. He would then import the CAD file into a CAD/CAM program, and turn the drawing into the actual code that was fed into the CNC mill to machine the part, and email the code back to me.
I've been learning to do the CAM portion recently; here is the first part of a program I coded yesterday, and a pic of the computer-rendered part..

; 72d.AGC*
 ; 03/27/13, 02:24PM *
 G49 G40 G90 G17*
T1 M6*
 ; TOOL 1 *
 ; *
N100 G0 G90 X0.0 Y5.437*
N101 M3 S1500*
N102 M1 L1*
N103 G43 H1 Z0.1*
N104 G98 G81 Z-0.05 R0.05 F4.0*
N105 X0.7158 Y5.0934*
N106 X1.3368 Y4.6621*
N107 X0.6893 Y3.9092*
N108 X0.1488 Y4.2604*

 

Scott, that looks a lot like APT I was using myself on the end of 80ties.

[70CB750]

I work in a prototype model shop and....blueprints are...what? A lot of the projects I work with are so over designed and under thought out that I get stuck in the middle of an idiotic "engineers design" and a deadline. It is my job to take that non blueprinted turd and figure out how to manufacture it. With the was of 3d printing the designs have just gotten worse and worse.

That is funny!  It always works on paper, but takes real life experience to make it happen in wood/metal/plastic.

[ZanVooden]

I work in the building construction industry on the HVAC side of things (primarily designing large engine test cells, facilities and infrastructure) as an engineer. We are a consulting company so we are hired and produce drawings for the facility owner and they take those drawings to a contractor.

When we issue drawings, we have them stamped by a state licensed engineer, and for them to do that, they stamp paper documents. Granted they are all drawn in CAD, but the contractor gets paper documents still.

Now there is a shift in the industry to 3D modeling software (Autodesk Revit). This allows us to design/engineer the building entirely in 3D. But the deliverable which is stamped is still 2D paper documents. We will however turn our electronic model over to a construction management company for their use to product fabrication drawings and use in the field if they have the capability.
I have been on a couple job sites where the contractors have the paper documents in the area of work for reference, but every morning starts out in a trailer with a 3D model on the a screen to work out coordination issues.

Some of the clients really like the 3D modeling so they can see what they will be getting in a virtual world before it is actually built.

[scottly]

I was talking to my friend last night, and asked him about blueprints. He said they absolutely used blueprints when programing the machines, whether it was hard copy, or a PDF file, regardless of the creation process, including CAD. Sometimes, the PDF file would be accompanied with a CAD drawing, but the blueprint was king. The hard-copy on the production floor is slowly being replaced with monitors at the work station..