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STEP-NC enabled cross-technology interoperability for CNC machining

In recent decades there has been a rapid development of technology in manufacturing industries, in particular through the increasing use of ever more powerful and sophisticated Computer Numerical Controlled (CNC) machines to manufacture complex parts. These machines are supported by a chain of computer based software solutions amongst which manufacturing information is exchanged. With the need for information exchange, interoperability between various computer-aided systems (CAx) has become an important research area. In CNC part programing, innovations by various hardware manufacturers and their reflection in their software have led to the necessity for the existence of different part programs for each machine. Creating these is a time consuming and economically inefficient activity. Implementing genuine interoperability between CNC machines is a way of eliminating this deficiency but, to achieve this, CNC programmers must be able to write a CNC program for a specific machine and effortlessly convert that program to work for other machines. The aim of this research was to enable the exchange of CNC programmes across machines with different technologies and demonstrate this between a C-axis CNC turn-mill machine and a 4-axis CNC machining centre. This has been achieved by designing a cross-technology interoperability framework that is capable of supporting systems that can work with the different types of CNC machines. This framework is the core contribution to knowledge from this PhD research. In order to fully identify the context for the research, this thesis presents a review of existing literature on machining of turn-mill parts and interoperability for CNC manufacturing. This is followed by the specification and realisation of a novel framework for cross-technology interoperability for CNC manufacturing. The demonstration is conducted using test components that can be manufactured using different CNC technologies.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:619222
Date January 2014
CreatorsSafaieh, Mehrdad
ContributorsNassehi, Aydin ; Newman, Stephen
PublisherUniversity of Bath
Source SetsEthos UK
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation

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