A Supporting System for Making NC Programs by Way of Knowledge Engineering Approach

Abstract

Conventionally a processing program for NC (numerical control) machine is coded by a skilled operator or programmer, who has the excellent experience of machine work. As compared with the processing time taken by NC machine, the programming time is extremely long even the skilled programmer does it. According to our supporting system, a processing program is automatically generated from the output of CAD (computer aided design) system. The prototype of our supporting system is applied to the NC turret punch press machine, wherein the shape, size of the holes to be punched out and the order of the processings are indicated by the program. Usually the skilled programmer knows which tools installed in the turret of the machine should be used and how the order of the processings should be determined. The present system contains such information in the knowledgebase and uses it to generate the processing program. The knowledge in the knowledgebase consists of two kinds of the informations. The prototype system developed generates a processing program much faster than a skilled programmer. The result shows that the practical model can be developed by increasing the amount of knowledges.