NC AND THE FUTURE.

The Plessey microprocessor controller RUSC is comprised of two main elements - a loader/editor unit and a controller. The loader/editor is designed to take away from the machine tool all those elements which consume time prior to the machine cutting metal. The unit is portable and has a full alpha-numeric keyboard, visual display and solid state memory. With this unit a part program is planned and executed away from the machine tool. The unit is carried to the selected machine tool, a plug inserted and the program transferred almost simultaneously to the controller on the machine tool. The unit is unplugged and taken on to the next job. The existing program is retained in the unit's memory and can be transferred to magnetic cassette or paper tape and a library of parts built up against future re-use. Editing of the program at any stage is simply done by overwriting existing or inserting new characters at the touch of a key. Local edit facilities are available at the controller. Display and keyboard allow for the optimization of feeds, speeds and axis-coordination to give greater productive output and easy program modification.