System, method and computer-program product for transferring a numerical control program to thereby control a machine tool controller

A system for controlling at least one machine tool with at least one numerical control (NC) program delivered across a wide area network (WAN) comprising:

• at least one central processing element including the at least one NC program;
• at least one machine tool controller adapted to control the at least one machine tool;
• and
• a workstation electrically connected to the at least one central processing element via the WAN, wherein said workstation is capable of selecting at least one machine tool controller based upon at least one status of each machine tool controller, wherein said workstation is also capable of selecting the at least one NC program;
• and,
• wherein said selected at least one machine tool controller is capable of receiving the selected at least one NC program across the WAN from said at least one central processing element, said at least one machine tool controller being adapted to control the at least one machine tool based upon the selected at least one NC program.

A computer program product for transferring at least one numerical control (NC) program via a wide area network (WAN), the computer program product comprising a computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code portions stored therein, the computer-readable program code portions comprising:

• a first executable portion for selecting at least one machine tool controller from a workstation, wherein at least one machine tool controller is selected based upon at least one status of each machine tool controller;
• a second executable portion for selecting the at least one NC program from the workstation;
• a third executable portion for notifying at least one central processing element of the selected at least one NC program via the WAN;
• and
• a fourth executable portion for transferring the selected at least one NC program across the WAN from the at least one central processing element to the selected at least one machine tool controller, wherein the at least one machine tool controller is electrically connected to at least one machine tool.

A method of controlling a plurality of machine tool controllers with at least one numerical control (NC) program, wherein the at least one NC program is stored by at least one central processing element, said method comprising:

• selecting the at least one machine tool controller from the plurality of machine tool controllers, wherein the selecting is based upon at least one status of each machine tool controller selected from a group consisting of an operability status, a current workload status and a future workload status;
• selecting the at least one NC program from a workstation;
• and
• transferring the selected at least one NC program from the at least one central processing element to the selected at least one machine tool controller to thereby control the selected at least one machine tool controller.

A computer program product for controlling a plurality of machine tool controllers with at least one numerical control (NC) program, wherein the at least one NC program is stored by at least one central processing element, the computer program product comprising a computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code portions stored therein, the computer-readable program code portions comprising:

• a first executable portion for selecting at least one machine tool controller from the plurality of machine tool controllers, wherein the second executable portion is adapted to select the at least one machine tool controller based upon at least one status of each machine tool controller selected from a group consisting of an operability status, a current workload status and a future workload status;
• a second executable portion for selecting the at least one NC program from a workstation;
• and
• a third executable portion for transferring the selected at least one NC program from the first processing element to the selected at least one machine tool controller.