CNC Engineering

CNC Engineering is applying CNC technology to manufacture different types of products like metal, plastic, etc. CNC engineering is the study of the mechanism involved and the whole process by which a prototype of a substance is converted into a regular product. Its need and demands have been rising in past few years with great speed. It is only because of the advantageous benefits of this field. You can learn more about them here in this guide.

Figure 1: CNC Engineering

If we talk about the work of a CNC engineer, that is, to manage and maintain the functioning of the CNC machines for the manufacturing of the final product. CNC Engineers, through different methods, test the CAD design presented to them by a designer. CNC engineering is a growing field in China.

After the design is passed from the test, it is inserted into the CNC computer for final work. The CNC computer analyzes the design and commands the CNC machines to run likewise for the manufacturing of the product from that particular design.

CNC engineering is a vast field of manufacturing of the product through various methods of CNC machining. Recently, when CNC machining emerged and flourished, the term CNC Engineering was also used up for the people who were involved in the technical areas of CNC machining.

1. What Is the Role of CNC Engineer in CNC Machining?

Figure 2 Role of CNC engineer in CNC machining

In today’s modern digital world, a CNC engineer plays a pivotal role in manufacturing a product using CNC machining technology. The machines that are involved in the CNC machining are programmed by the CNC engineers working in those manufacturing factories.

Similarly, other roles of a CNC engineer that make him the most important for manufacturing are the production of CAD design for the product. Mostly, the CNC engineers are not involved in the designing of the CAD, but in some cases, they do this job also.

Before a product made through CNC machining is launched in the market, it is first tested by the CNC engineer to ensure the best and high-quality product manufacturing. Apart from designing and testing, a CNC engineer is also involved in the development of software for the CNC technology that can be used for better manufacturing with high-quality work and greater accuracy.

A CNC engineer, along with the manufacturer and supplier, is involved in the proper optimization of the CNC technology for making it more useful for manufacturing. Similarly, it will also be your duty to hire and manage the best laborers for the manufacturing of the products using the CNC technology. A CNC engineer manages and repairs the damaged parts of the CNC machining to ensure the better accuracy of the final products that are to be manufactured using these machines.

Similarly, another most critical role of a CNC engineer is to prepare and implement the strategies for creating products that are of the best quality, high accuracy, and cheaper in terms of cost. All these roles of a CNC engineer make him the most important person for manufacturing a product in the CNC manufacturing plants.

2. What Are the Skills Required for Manufacturers in CNC Engineering?

There are a number of skills that are required by the CNC engineer for the manufacturing of the best quality products. Some of the most essential skills required for CNC engineering are the two languages by which the CNC machines operate, i.e., G code and M code. Both of these languages bear great importance for the manufacturing of the products using CNC technology. These languages can be called the core languages for running the CNC machines for specific requirements.

A CNC engineer should have a strong grip on the preparation and testing of the CAD by using different types of designing software. Similarly, he should also be an expert in the development of the CAD soft wares and the CAD design to manufacture the products that are best according to the requirements of the clients of those factories.

Apart from all these skills, it is essential for a CNC engineer to be fully aware of all the safety rules and techniques to ensure protection against any fault in the machinery. Similarly, he should also be fully aware of the laws needed to be considered for the manufacturing of a product. For Example, A CNC engineer will never accept the order of a client who orders him to manufacture a product with certain materials that are considered unlawful according to the law.

The other most crucial skill that a CNC engineer must have is to be fully aware of all those modern CNC manufacturing technologies that can be used for the manufacturing of products with modern methods and techniques. For example, there are certain products that are manufactured using modern CNC technology, and the traditional techniques may not work better in that case.

So if a CNC engineer knows the use of that modern CNC technology, he gets the upper hand in creating more clients for their company than the rest of his competitors. All these are the general skills that are required by the best CNC engineer, manufacturer, or supplier for the manufacturing of the products using the CNC technology.

3. What Is the Scope of CNC Engineering in the Modern World?

Figure 3 – Scope Of CNC Engineering in modern World

If we talk about the scope of the CNC technology, we can observe that it is an emerging and entirely new field of study. CNC engineering is a practical field, which can be learned by acquiring the basic skills of CNC engineering like learning the machine languages and their safety, use, etc. CNC engineering is currently not taught in colleges and Universities like the other types of engineering, but if a person learns the CNC manufacturing skills, he can work as a CNC engineer in the manufacturing firms.

CNC engineering is a highly required skill for the future manufacturing of products. We all know that the world is moving faster towards the use of modern technology and artificial intelligence. Everything is going to be digital in this contemporary era. In these conditions, the traditional manufacturing technologies will soon end up and will be converted into automated manufacturing technologies, same as the CNC.

All this discussion proves the importance of CNC engineering for the future world. This is due to the fact that CNC machining is an automatic process, and every kind of automatic function and process is highly required for the future world.

Currently, CNC manufacturing technologies are used across the globe in almost every country, including China. So, you can easily find a job in a CNC manufacturing factory if you have all the required skills in CNC engineering. One of the best things about CNC engineering is that there is a lot of success potential in this file with the competition of almost none. Thus, you can get success in the manufacturing field by adopting your career as a CNC engineer and find a job in a manufacturing company anywhere.

4. How Much Can You Earn Through CNC Engineering in China?

If we talk about the earning of a CNC engineer in China, so that is almost 20000 CNY/ per month. This monthly earning is almost the same across the world, with slight variation in salary according to their value of the currency and financial stability. The monthly earning mentioned above is considered the best for making a better living in the manufacturing industry. By learning the basic skills of CNC engineering, one can make this much of earning as a CNC engineer. You can easily find CNC engineering jobs n China.

The salary is not fixed to 20000, but it is average and depends upon the manufacturing company and their capacity. The wages of a CNC engineer can reach up to 30000 CNY per month too. Some manufacturing factories offer 9000 CNY per month to the CNC engineers working in their factories.

One of the most important factors that determine the salary range of a CNC engineer is the experience in years. An engineer who is highly experienced with more years of work is more likely to get hired by the better-paying CNC manufacturing firms. Thus, you can get more salary per month as compared to the others.

One of some other factors that the manufacturing companies consider for determining their average monthly salary is their skill level. For Example, if a CNC engineer doesn’t know all the machining languages, care, and safety of machines, the company won’t pay him higher. On the other hand, an engineer who is fully aware of all the modern CNC technologies, modern CNC languages will be paid higher by the manufacturing companies. So skills are also the key factors that determine the earning of a CNC engineer.

5. Is CNC Engineering Taught in Colleges?

Figure 5 Learning CNC In College

CNC engineering, being a new field in the manufacturing industry, is not taught at colleges right now. However, different technical institutions are on their way to teaching CNC engineering to those technical colleges’ students. CNC engineering is a general field that requires a person to learn all the skills that are necessary for the manufacturing technology in CNC engineering.

Once a person learns all those skills, he can work as a CNC engineer in the manufacturing firms without any degree in CNC engineering. There is a possibility in the near future that the colleges and universities of the world will introduce CNC engineering as a field of study. However, up till now, there is no specific institution that teaches their students CNC engineering and, in the end, provides them a certificate for the completion of their course.

6. How Hard Is It To Learn CNC Engineering?

Figure 6: Learning CNC Engineering

CNC engineering is an entirely technical field. Only that person can get fit into this new field who can work with technical things like designing, testing, manufacturing, and repairing the damaged parts of the machinery. Learning CNC engineering is not that much hard. However, you will need a good amount of hard work to get succeeded in this career. In fact, adopting every profession will require putting a lot of hard work into it for becoming successful in that field.

According to some statistics, there is a need for almost 4.6 million CNC engineers up to the year 2028. All this is because of the lowest competition in CNC engineering, as it is a new field. From all the discussions, we can observe that learning CNC engineering may require you to learn every kind of technical thing in CNC engineering but finding a job as a CNC engineer will not be that much hard for you.

In addition, once you are fully equipped with all the modern skills for CNC engineering, you can easily get a job in a manufacturing company. As a CNC engineer, you will have to use different types of scientific methods for the production of different products, so learning those scientific methods and getting a strong grip over them will be a little harder for the newcomers in this field.

7. How Does A CNC Engineer Works in A Manufacturing Company?

A CNC engineer works by the production of the CAD, running the CAD on the CNC computer, and finally monitoring the CNC machinery to produce the final product. These are the general steps by which a CNC engineer works in the CNC manufacturing Company.  The following are some of the most important steps that are used by a CNC engineer in CNC engineering for the manufacturing of the final product using the CNC technology.

Figure 7: Working of a CNC Engineer

· Examine The Machinery

After the CAD design is made final by the designer or a CNC engineer, the first step of production of the product is to examine the various parts of the CNC machinery by a CNC engineer. Every part of the machine is tested adequately so that it may not show any kind of error after it starts manufacturing of the product, which can lead to the poor accuracy of the product. Once all the parts are tested, the next step of CNC engineering begins.

· Load The CNC Machines with Necessary Materials

After everything is made finalized by a CNC engineer, the next step is to load the CNC manufacturing machinery with all the necessary materials that are required for the manufacturing of the product. This may include metal, plastic, or any other material that a manufacturer wants to use for the manufacturing of his product.

· Starting of Machines

The next step in CNC engineering is to start the CNC computer and insert the CAD design into the computer for the final manufacturing of the product. Once the design is taken by the computer, it analysis the design and scans it for further drawbacks to avoid any kind of complications that may arise while manufacturing process. After everything is made ready, the next step is to command the CNC machines to start manufacturing the product using CNC Engineering.

· Monitoring The Process

In general, it is not required for a CNC engineer to sit in front of the CNC computer and monitor the whole process involved in CNC engineering. This is because the CNC technology is, as a whole, an automatic process and works according to the design inserted into the CNC computer. However, if an engineer keeps monitoring the computer and machinery from time to time, the machines are less likely to create even a minor shortcoming in the accuracy and quality of the product.

· Ending The Process

The last step involved in CNC engineering is the ending of the process. In this step, after the CNC computer shows the completion of the manufacturing of the product, then the CNC engineer has to end up the process by moving out the product from the CNC machines and closing up the machinery for resting up. It is important for the CNC engineer to clean up the CNC machine parts so that they may be able to use them for further use.

8. Why Is CNC Engineering Popular Nowadays?

Figure 8: Popularity Of CNC Engineering

Due to a number of reasons, CNC engineering is highly used by manufacturing firms for the manufacturing of different products. This results in the greater demands of the CNC engineers in the manufacturing factories. The most crucial reason that had made CNC engineering so prevalent in today’s world is accuracy and high-quality production.

Using CNC engineering, we can get products that are of the best quality and are highly durable. Some other reasons that make CNC engineering so popular today are given as under.

· Increase in Speed

The products manufactured using CNC engineering are produced much faster than any other kind of manufacturing. This is because of the automatic processes that are involved in CNC engineering. These automatic processes reduce a lot of labor work, and the production of the product using CNC engineering becomes much faster.

· Better Safety and Protection

If we talk about the best safest engineering technology, so that is the CNC engineering technology. It is the safest CNC process used for the manufacturing of high-quality products. The traditional manufacturing technologies require some more amount of labor which and is not as safe as that of CNC engineering.

Figure 9: CNC Engineering Is Best For Manufacturing

· Reduces Overall Cost

If you use the other manufacturing technologies for the manufacturing of your product, you will be needing more amount of labor force. This will increase your overall cost of the production of your product. On the other hand, if you use CNC engineering for the manufacturing of your products, you won’t be charged higher. This is due to the reason that CNC engineering can be used by a single person to manufacture the entire product. Most of the labor work is carried out by the CNC machines in CNC engineering, reducing your overall expenditure on the product.

· Complex Parts Are Easily Manufactured

In other manufacturing technologies, one of the greatest drawbacks is that the complex parts are not that much easy to be manufactured. You will be required to pass the product from a lot number of steps and stages for the manufacturing of the final product in case of traditional manufacturing technology. However, if you use the simple processes of CNC engineering, you will be able to manufacture the highly complex parts of the complex machinery much faster and easier with the best accuracy.

9. What Are The Steps For Becoming A Successful CNC Engineer?

Figure 10: Steps for CNC Engineering

To become a CNC engineer, you will have to learn the necessary skills required in CNC engineering. A person who wants to work as a CNC engineer in a company should be fully equipped with modern knowledge regarding all the important steps and processes by which the material passes to become the final product. The following are some of the basic steps required for a person to become a CNC engineer.

· Learn

The first step towards CNC engineering is to learn your skills to the top level. You should have a basic understanding of the G code and M code languages. Similarly, you should also have a sound knowledge of all kinds of STEM subjects. You can also learn from CNC engineering courses online. You should learn to handle and managing machinery and repair their damaged parts. If you have done a mechanical diploma, that will be a plus point for you to become a CNC engineer.

· Practice

After you have learned all the necessary skills, it is now the time to practice those skills. You can do it in different ways. For Example, you can start an internship with a manufacturing firm to polish your skills. There are certain manufacturing companies that also pay their internees, so you can also make your earnings while practicing your CNC engineering skills. With a simple training of few weeks, you will become able to join a company as a regular employee.

· Get Certified

You should always work as an internee with a manufacturing company that also provides certification to their internees after the completion of the internship. Once you complete your internship, get certified from those manufacturing companies so that you may not find any kind of difficulty in your job hunt for the position of CNC engineer in other manufacturing companies.

10. How Is Plastic Manufactured Using CNC Engineering?

Figure 11: Plastic Manufacturing using CNC

CNC machining is a very broad field. Using CNC engineering, one can manufacture different products that are made from plastic, metal, or any other substance. In this process, the plastic substances are manufactured in the following steps.

· Selecting Materials

Not the whole product is of plastic. Instead, there are certain parts of the products that are manufactured using other materials. For example, the internal mechanical parts are sometimes manufactured using metal parts, and the external structure is that of plastic. So before manufacturing the final plastic product using the CNC technology is to select the best and suitable material for the manufacturing.

Figure 12 –  Choosing The Best Material

· Choosing A CAD

After the material is finalized, the next step is to prepare the CAD design for the product. The CAD design is produced by the designer or sometimes by the CNC engineer. After making the CAD, it is tested by the CNC engineer to find out further shortcomings in the CAD and correct those shortcomings. After all these processes, the CAD design is finalized to be passed from further processes.

· Selecting A Mold

After the finalization of the design, a mold is selected by the manufacturer or supplier for further actions on the design. The mold is chosen according to the desired shape according to what we want our product to look like.

· Liquefying The Material

After selecting the mold, the material, which we want to use for the product manufacturing, is liquefied. In this case, as we will be using the plastic so the plastic will be liquefied to make it suitable to be injected into the mold.

Figure 13: Plastic Manufacturing

· Injection of Plastic into the Mold

The next step is to inject the liquid plastic into the mold to get the desired shape. The mold is then inserted into the CNC machine, and the CAD design is run over the CNC engineering Computer. The further steps are the same as the other CNC engineering processes. For example, after the design is inserted into the computer, the computer analysis the design and commands the machine to manufacture the product.

· Getting Out the Product

Once the whole process is finished, it is then the time to end up the entire process and take the product out of the CNC machine. Even after the product is fully prepared, it is vital for you to keep it inside the mold out of the CNC machine so that all the parts get into their perfect shapes. After some hours, you can remove the mold and get your desired plastic product manufactured using CNC engineering technology.