Computer-Aided Process Planning for Turned Parts Using Fundamental and Heuristic Principles

1992 ◽  
Vol 114 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
U. P. Korde ◽  
B. C. Bora ◽  
K. A. Stelson ◽  
D. R. Riley

Research on generative computer-aided process planning (CAPP) for turned parts using combined fundamental and heuristic principles is presented. The rationale for the process planning approach is that many preconditions of machining processes can be expressed as a small number of domain principles. The domain is defined by processes and the part description as features for simple turned parts. The motivation is to detect faulty designs early on in the design process. Preliminary designs defined by features are first evaluated using manufacturability rules in a rule-based expert system, developed in LISP. Manufacturability rules are based on feature properties such as accessibility, stability, and critical material thickness. The rules were acquired from design and manufacturing personnel from industry through interviews. Parts that satisfy the manufacturability checks are used to generate all feasible process plans. A search algorithm selects the “best” process plan from the feasible set. Process plans are generated and subsequently optimized using two distinct sets of feasibility and optimality criteria which may be either fundamental or heuristic in nature. The presently incorporated criteria successfully restrict the set of plans to a small number without missing any apparently feasible process plans. Manufacturability evaluation, feasible process plans, and optimal process plans for actual industrial parts have been obtained and compared.

1994 ◽  
Vol 116 (1) ◽  
pp. 108-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Cho ◽  
A. Derebail ◽  
T. Hale ◽  
R. A. Wysk

A formal approach for integrating Computer-Aided Design (CAD), Computer-Aided Process Planning (CAPP), and shop floor control for rotational components is presented in this paper. It is assumed that this approach will be implemented within the framework of a three level hierarchical CIM architecture that consists of the following levels in the hierarchy: shop floor, workstation and equipment (Joshi et al., 1991). Our approach to CAPP consists of machining feature identification, definition, classification, representation, and reasoning, provided through a CAD model of a product. Geometric entities are identified from a Drawing Exchange Format (DXF) file. The identified entities form the basis for the construction of primitive manufacturing features. The primitive features are assembled together based upon the precedence among features, into a graph, called a feature graph. However, the primitive features may or may not be manufacturable in terms of depth of cut, tool geometry, surface finish, and material handling required. Hence it is necessary to convert the feature graph into a manufacturing task graph, which consists of specifications of alternative functional tasks that are manufacturable. The task graph may be converted into a hierarchical set of process plans, based on the planning criteria at each level in the control hierachy, to reflect the processing requirements at each level. The shop planning function decomposes the task graph into a set of workstation level plans. Each workstation level plan is aggregated into a set of equipment level process plans by the workstation planning function. The equipment level plan is converted into a unique task sequence by the equipment planning function. This sequence is then executed according to specifications by the equipment level execution function. Provision of alternative routes in process plans provides for flexible means of on-line planning and control.


Author(s):  
Quanwei Hu ◽  
Lihong Qiao ◽  
Guanwei Peng

Computer-aided process planning is an important component for linking design and manufacturing in computer-aided design/computer-aided process planning/computer-aided manufacturing integrated manufacturing systems. Operation sequencing in computer-aided process planning is one of the most essential tasks. To solve the problem and acquire optimal process plans, operation sequencing is modeled as a combinatorial optimization problem with various constraints, and a novel modified ant colony optimization algorithm is developed to solve it. To ensure the feasibility of process plans, constrained relationships considered among operations are classified into two categories called precedence constraint relationships and clustering constraint relationships. Operation precedence graph based on constrained relationships is formed to get visual representation. To ensure good manufacturing economy, in the mathematical model for optimization, total weighted production cost or weighted resource transformation time related to machine changes, setup changes, tool changes, machines and tools is utilized as the evaluation criterion. To avoid local optimum and enhance global search ability, adaptive updating method and local search mechanism are embedded into the optimization algorithm. Case studies of three parts are carried out to demonstrate the feasibility and robustness of the modified ant colony optimization algorithm, and some comparisons between the modified ant colony optimization algorithm and previous genetic algorithm, simulated annealing algorithm, tabu search and particle swarm optimization algorithm are discussed. The results show that the modified ant colony optimization algorithm performs well in the operation sequencing problem.


Author(s):  
Jhy-Cherng Tsai ◽  
Weirong Tsai

Abstract This paper presents a knowledge-base approach that assists a designer to evaluate possible process plans and associated costs based on tolerancing specifications of the designed part. It is an effort to take dimensional tolerances into computer-aided process planning (CAPP) for cylindrical parts through the usage of databases and knowledge bases. Geometric features with tolerancing specifications in a CAD system are first used to determine possible machining operations that can achieve the specified tolerances based on data from the machining feature database, the process precision grade database, and the precision grade database. Process plans are then generated based on rules and knowledge from process sequence knowledge base and the machining feature database. Possible process plans are further organized as a graph. Optimal process plan with least cost is then selected by searching through the graph. This is achieved based on machine set-up and operation costs that are derived from the machine tool resource database, the process parameter database, and the machine set-up and operation cost database. A CAPP software prototype supporting tolerance design on the AutoCAD platform is also demonstrated with examples to illustrate this approach.


2011 ◽  
Vol 264-265 ◽  
pp. 1551-1556
Author(s):  
Deepak Byotra ◽  
Rajesh Kumar Bhushan

Bulk of power transmitting metal gears of machinery is produced by machining processes from cast, forged or hot rolled blanks. It includes a number of versatile machining operations that use a milling cutter, a multi tooth tool to produce a variety of configurations. The aim of the computer aided process planning (CAPP) is to develop a programme for milling cutting processes. This paper reveals the hybrid approach to computer aided process planning for milling and grinding operations on gear blank, so that the plan can be generated taking into account the availability of machines and the material. The developed computer aided process plan has reduced the set up time and machining time by 40.90 and 30.15 % respectively.


Author(s):  
Nikolaos A. Fountas ◽  
Constantinos I. Stergiou ◽  
Nikolaos M. Vaxevanidis

Despite the fast development and the continuous evolution of computer-aided systems for product design, analysis and manufacturing, an unlinked gap appears between the interfaces of computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided process planning (CAPP) modules. Various CAPP systems have been built to address this problem and forward a “passage” to link the design phase and the planning of manufacturing processes; hence, providing precise technical instructions in the shop-floor. To support the manufacturing trends and contribute to the research efforts for the realization of precise, reliable and efficient process plans, a set of programmable support functions are presented in the form of an object-oriented software application that enable process planners to produce accurate process plans for aircraft parts and components.


Author(s):  
MIRA BALABAN ◽  
DAN BRAHA

Computer-aided process planning has been recognized as an important tool for coordinating the different operations involved in making the product. While temporal knowledge is central to the design of efficient and reliable process plans, little attention is given to the integration of process planning and temporal processing and reasoning. To fill the void, we propose in this paper a practical approach, which is inspired by the framework of Temporal Constraint Satisfaction Problem (TCSP), to integrate process planning and temporal reasoning. We show that a TCSP formulation is a subset of a formulation using a reified temporal logic, and discuss the advantages of using such a restricted model. To reflect more realistic process planning encountered in real manufacturing environments, we present a model, called n-TCSP, which is a generalization of the TCSP framework. We envision the proposed temporal reasoning framework as one of the modules in the evolving new intelligent computer-aided process planning.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 1981
Author(s):  
Mica Djurdjev ◽  
Robert Cep ◽  
Dejan Lukic ◽  
Aco Antic ◽  
Branislav Popovic ◽  
...  

Computer-aided process planning represents the main link between computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing. One of the crucial tasks in computer-aided process planning is an operation sequencing problem. In order to find the optimal process plan, operation sequencing problem is formulated as an NP hard combinatorial problem. To solve this problem, a novel genetic crow search approach (GCSA) is proposed in this paper. The traditional CSA is improved by employing genetic strategies such as tournament selection, three-string crossover, shift and resource mutation. Moreover, adaptive crossover and mutation probability coefficients were introduced to improve local and global search abilities of the GCSA. Operation precedence graph is adopted to represent precedence relationships among features and vector representation is used to manipulate the data in the Matlab environment. A new nearest mechanism strategy is added to ensure that elements of machines, tools and tool approach direction (TAD) vectors are integer values. Repair strategy to handle precedence constraints is adopted after initialization and shift mutation steps. Minimization of total production cost is used as the optimization criterion to evaluate process plans. To verify the performance of the GCSA, two case studies with different dimensions are carried out and comparisons with traditional and some modern algorithms from the literature are discussed. The results show that the GCSA performs well for operation sequencing problem in computer-aided process planning.


Author(s):  
Xun Xu

Products and their components are designed to perform certain functions. Design specifi- cations ensure the functionality aspects. The task in manufacturing is then to produce the components that meet the design specifications. The components are in turn assembled into the final products. When computers are used to assist the process planning and manufacturing activities, multiple benefits can be had. The related technologies are known as computer-aided process planning and computer-aided manufacturing. Often, they are not separable and are therefore discussed in tandem in this chapter. It should be emphasized that process planning is not only for metal-cutting processes. We need process planning for many other manufacturing processes such as casting, forging, sheet metal forming, compositesz and ceramic fabrication. In this chapter, the basic steps of developing a process plan are explained. There are two approaches to carrying out process planning tasks—manual experience-based method and computer-aided process planning method. The focus is on two computer-aided process planning methods, the variant approach, and generative approach. These discussions on process planning have been limited to machining processes. The topic of computer-aided manufacturing, on the other hand, is discussed with a more general point of view. A fictitious CAM plant is presented and some of the key aspects of CAM in a manufacturing system are discussed. A more specific version of CAM (i.e. computer numerical control) will be covered in Chapters VIII and IX.


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