A COMPUTER-INTEGRATED MANUFACTURING SYSTEM FOR ROTATIONAL PARTS

In this paper, a computer integrated manufacturing system has been est ablished. The integration of the CAD/ CAM/CAPP is applied to smooth th e design and manufacturing process of rotational parts. The CSG model is adopted to construct the solid geometry. The same part data is used in all of the CAD, CAM and CAPP modules. The basic primitives, such a s the cylinder and the cone features, are used to build the main shape of the part. The manufacturing features, such as the groove and the t hread, are attached to the corresponding primitives to modify the loca l shapes and add the high level manufacturing information effectively and efficiently. The smoothing operation of two adjacent primitives ha s been proposed to determine the correct dimensions of two connected p rimitives with tangential continuity. A feature recognition algorithm has been proposed to convert the wire frame entities to CSG primitives . A GT code system and a process weighting method are proposed to reco gnize the part and generate the corresponding process plan. Algorithms for planning the cutter path and calculating the cutter locations hav e been proposed to generate the NC programme automatically. Cutting pa th simulation and cutting process animation are supplied in the propos ed system to verify the CAM functions. Examples and the cutting experi ment are given to demonstrate and verify the proposed CAD/CAM/CAPP int egration system.