Development of operation planning support system using XML database of machining information

Abstract

The objective of this study is the standardization of machining information and the development of operation planning support system that uses the standardized machining information. First, machining information of tool, holder, machine tool, etc. are standardized by creating the database on the basis of XML technology. The developed system consists of XML database of machining information and some software modules. The cutting condition determination module determines cutting condition, the tool path generation modules generate cutter location data, and the post-processor module generates NC data, while referring to the information in XML database. Also, the system adopts the case based reasoning technique in the calculation of each module, which uses the product data stored in the system as the machining know-how. In machining experiments, the developed system is mounted on PC that is connected to 5-axis control machine tool with open CNC. The result shows that the developed system enables sequential operations from the determination of cutting condition to the actual machining only by inputting the bare minimum of information, and the effect on the laborsaving in operation planning is indicated.