Accession No
4550
Brief Description
foot last and jug, cut using Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Computer Aided Manufacture (CAM), made in/by Cambridge Engineering Department, English, 1968 and 1972
Origin
England; Cambridge; University of Cambridge; Cambridge University Engineering Department
Maker
Cambridge University Engineering Department
Class
computer technology; engineering
Earliest Date
1968
Latest Date
1972
Inscription Date
1972
Material
plastic (or wax?); metal (steel)
Dimensions
metal object length 94mm; breadth 79mm; height 51mm; foot length 285mm; breadth 82mm; height 95mm
Special Collection
Provenance
Gifted by the Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, on 31/01/1993.
Inscription
‘Designed
by
P.J. PAYNE in C.U.E.D. cut at
Olympia Machine Tool Exhibition July 1972
on Hayes Tapemaster 1380’ (on metal object)
Description Notes
Two objects cut using Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Computer Aided Manufacture (CAM), made in/by Cambridge Engineering Department, English, 1968 & 1972.
A foot shaped last cut in plastic and a half-cut steel jug. These objects represent the first free-form surfaces cut using CAD-CAM (Computer Aided Design & Manufacture).
A copy of the manual, DUCT: Design Using Computer Techniques, General Information Manual, in German (Published by Volkswagen AG, 1987), was sent to us by D.B. Welbourne on 12/01/2009, and has been placed in store.
Condition good; complete.
References
Events
Description
These CAD-CAM prototype models were designed by a team of researchers in the Cambridge University Engineering Department. The plastic foot last was cut on a computer-controlled machine tool at Marshall of Cambridge in 1968, and is probably the first object with free-form surfaces ever to be cut in CADCAM; until it was made only simple geometrical shapes could be modelled. The steel model of a jug was designed by P. J. Payne and cut at the Machine Tool Exhibition at Olympia in London in July 1972 using a Hayes Tapemaster 1380.
CAD is a development of technical drawing; CAM is the computerized production of objects. From 1965 onwards Cambridge became a centre of research into CAD-CAM, which is now integral to almost all architecture and industrial production worldwide.
16/08/2016
Created by: Joshua Nall [update of Boris Jardine 2011 MG refurb label] on 16/08/2016
FM:39494
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