Development of STEP-NC compliant machine tool data model

Abstract

To implement STEP-NC based manufacturing, a STEP-NC compliant machine tool data model (STEP-NCMtDm) is developed by using EXPRESS modelling lanugage. It models sufficient machine tool data to 'transfer' STEP-NC machining task-level data to machine tool dependent method-level data. The objective and two main technological aspects of developing STEP-NCMtDM are discussed. The model architecture is analyzed. Machine tool data in STEP-NCMtDm are categorized into two groups: "static data" and "dynamic data", to support further system development. A Web-enabled STEP-NCMtDm (a corresponding XML schema) is developed to support Web-based application. STEP-NCMtDm has been implemented to model a milling machine tool and represent its data in a STEP Part 21 file and an XML file to support STEP-NC based manufacturing.