A STEP-compliant approach to turning operations

There is no doubt that today manufacturing is more competitive and challenging than ever before in trying to respond to "production on demand". Companies from east and west and all over the world have changing rules of business and need to collaborate beyond geographic boundaries with the support of the rapid advancement of information technology associated with manufacturing technology. To satisfy customers' demands for product variety and the industrial need for high precision, numerically controlled machining with multiple axes and sophisticated machine tools are required. Due to the complexity of programming there is a need to model their process capability to improve the interoperable manufacturing capability of machines such as turning centres. This thesis focuses on the use of the new standard, ISO 14649 (STEP-NC), to address the process planning and machining of discrete turned components. [Continues.]