STEP compliant CAD/CAPP/CAM system for rotational asymmetric parts

Manufacturing integration has been sought out for a number of years. Standardised information sharing has been an issue to guarantee computational systems interoperability across the product life cycle, but particularly in the manufacturing phase. The International Standard that supports product information namely ISO 10303 has supported computer aided systems in the product information exchange and sharing. However, standards for manufacturing information have been a problem waiting for solutions. In recent years product and manufacturing models have been used to support computational systems. However, the lack of an International Standard to represent the manufacturing information was an obstacle to have interoperable systems in the so-called CAx process chain. This thesis reports research on information support for computer aided process planning and manufacture with the basis on the new NC standards that support information exchange between CAD and CNC. A novel brand of product and manufacturing model has been explored to represent information necessary to support the process planning activity that uses new parts of ISO 10303 standard and the evolving ISO 14649 standard. The work also focuses on the understanding and development of the aforementioned standards with the aim to support and to integrate computer aided design, process planning and manufacture. The structure of the manufacturing model is based on three classes namely workingstation capability, process capability and resources capability. These provide the necessary infrastructure for interoperable computational systems that support the CAx process chain. The models have been tested through a case study using a proposed computational prototype entitled the STEP-TM CAPP system. This prototype shows this research approach provides significant potential for the future interoperable process planning of parts for the next generation of CAPP/CAM systems to make effective use of the future IS014649 intelligent CNC controllers.