TIMES AND COSTS ANALYSIS FOR SHEET-METAL CUTTING PROCESSES IN AN INTEGRATED CAD CAM SYSTEM/

The aim of the present article is to develop a detailed time and cost analysis for process planning sheet-metal operations. A special comput er module for determining the times and costs in sheet-metal operation s has been developed and integrated in a CAD/CAM system which incorpor ates modules for nesting, toolpath generation, post-processing, etc. T he special module allows all the geometrical and technological data fr om other modules in the CAD/CAM system (e.g. cutting conditions, toolp ath parameters, types of material, cutting gases, etc.) required for t he cost and time analysis to be automatically included without the nee d to manually enter the data in the module. This program can also be u sed as a 'stand alone' module, it has been developed with a graphic pr ogramming language (AutoLISP). Case studies are presented to highlight the benefits of using the program during practice.