Study of Process Planning based on Feature Dependency of Manufacturing Features (1st Report)

-The representation of Feature Dependency and Basic Concept of Process Planning System-

Abstract

Computer aided process planning has been expected to accomplish integration between design and its downstream, and has a role of a bridge between CAD and CAM applications. Since manufacturing feature recognized from CAD database is applied to communicate information in computer aided process planning, it becomes a key issue how to manage manufacturing features to achieve optimum process planning with minimum human intervention. For this purpose, an idea of a feature dependency of manufacturing feature based on a base plane is proposed. The feature dependency is a collection of manufacturing features based on the base plane in a hierarchy relationship. The base plane is a planar face which corresponds to a machine tool axis direction. Using this base plane and its feature dependency, each feature can be assigned to each specified process immediately and correctly, and all the successive process planning work is completed effectively. The systematic methodology for process planning, including unrecognized features, using feature dependency based on a base plane is presented, and the possibility of implementation applying this approach is verified by developed prototype CAPP system.