A system based on machined volumes to reduce the number of route sheets in process planning

Abstract

The paper focuses on the problem of choosing the manufacturing route in metal removal processes, which is very important for the Computer Aided Process Planning (CAPP) systems. A method consisting in establishing groups of precedence between machine operations has been proposed, in order to reduce the number of possible routes. This reduction is based on the elimination of the routes which are not technologically possible, despite being mathematically computable. A wide range of parts has been evaluated, using group technology for choosing the representative cases. For the different parts, the mathematically possible routes have been generated. Graph Theory has been used to determine the precedence between operations. The application of this method permits to reduce considerably the number of possibilities that must be computed, and therefore, the route sheet is obtained more quickly and the computational resources are used more efficiently.