A manufacturing system for contoured foam cushions

The design, application and evaluation of a specialized, personal computer-based manufacturing system for contouring foam cushions is presented. The topics discussed include both the hardware configuration and the software design. The target applications of this device are local or centralized fabrication of custom-contoured seat cushions. Although the technologies used for the development and implementation of this system are not new, using a personal-computer-based (PC) controller in place of a stand-alone numerically controlled (NC) motion controller significantly reduced the cost associated with this component. Further reductions in cost resulted from an optimization of the mechanical configuration for the dedicated task of carving foam cushions.