A CAPP EXPERT-SYSTEM FOR ROTATIONAL COMPONENTS

This paper is a new approach in developing a computer aided process pl anning expert system A system model is designed and its competence is verified. The effort involved is limited to the manufacturing of rotat ional components using metal cutting operations, and generative proces s planning is chosen over variant-group technology-process planning. T he process planning domain is analyzed in terms of the problem specifi cations and the knowledge characteristics. This analysis is used to cl assify the problem and the knowledge type according to the different e xpert system oriented classes. The model design is guided by tips prov ided for the different expert system classes, as well as relevant real izations from previous works,plus experimenting programming. A prototy pe system with a sample knowledge base is created as a result of this programming effort. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.