Machine tool forum stresses numerical control

The 27th Annual Machine Tool Electrification Forum sponsored by the Westinghouse Electric Corp., at Pittsburgh, Pa., June 11 and 12, 1963, reflected the growing application of numerically controlled (NC) machine tools. There are now over 3,000 machine units in the United States. The Westinghouse manufacturing shops alone have 54 NC machines in operation with 11 more on order. (Six are contour-cutting machines; the remainder, point-to-point.) An additional 300 to 400 NC units are in England, Europe, and Japan. Distribution of NC machine tools throughout the world closely parallels the distribution of computers. This is probably more than coincidental, perhaps reflecting the general level of technical sophistication in the various countries.