CONCURRENT PROCESS PLANNING FOR FINISH MILLING AND DIMENSIONAL INSPECTION OF SCULPTURED SURFACES IN DIE AND MOLD MANUFACTURING

With the introduction of computer-aided tools, traditional manufacturing tasks such as design, machining and inspection are now highly automated. However, due to the complexity and enormous knowledge involved in each process, most of these activities are still dealt with separately. Recent development of concurrent engineering emphasizes the importance of bringing manufacturing knowledge into the early design stage for optimum product and process design. In this paper, a knowledge-based CAD/CAM system which integrates process planning for finish milling and dimensional inspection of sculptured surfaces in die and mould manufacturing is presented. Optimum production plans are determined by minimizing the integral cost of machining and inspection. NC path generation and inspection planning are then verified by dynamic geometric simulations which provide the designer with the evaluations of machinability and inspectability. The implied significance is that strong inter-dependency may exist among various design life-cycle activities and that optimum solutions can be obtained by taking into account the interactions of the life-cycle events.