Manufacturing feature determination and extraction—part II: a heuristic approach

Abstract

This two-part paper presents two different manufacturing feature extraction approaches and the comparative studies on the two approaches. Part II will focus on presenting a Blank Surface Concave Edge (BSE-CE)-based heuristic approach to feature extraction and comparing the heuristic approach with the optimal volume segmentation approach presented in Part I. An automatic manufacturing feature extraction system has been developed using the BS-CE approach. The output of this system can be fed into a feature recognition module which would be a link with a process planning program. The BS-CE approach attempts to remove as much of the blank material within a given machine setup as possible. Minimizing the number of setups required and manufacturing cost is considered during the BS-CE feature extraction processes. Comparisons between the optimal volume segmentation approach and the BS-CE approach are also given. Details of the implementation of this technique on a commercial cad/ cam system (I-DEAS) have also been shown along with sample cases.