IMS ANC

New functions of the Milling and Turning application of the Euclid solid modeling system from MatraDatavision facilitate the creation of a cutting tool library containing geometric and technological information for each tool and to automate the transfer of cutting tool parameters to an NC operation as a function of the selection of a tool.

There is cutter data in the Cutter Management System (CMS) that can be migrated to Euclid. However, the data is incomplete and in some cases inaccurate. It is currently being revised.

Furthermore, the cutter and adapter data in the CMS represents only a fraction of the data needed to characterize the manufacturing resources on behalf of Numerical Control (NC) programmers, regardless of the tool they use to define an NC program, be it Euclid or the Automatically Programmed Tool (APT) NC programming language.

At the Fort Worth Division (FWD) of General Dynamics (GD), a significant investment was made to explicitly characterize FWD manufacturing resources. The Numerical Control Data Base Management System (NCDBMS) was initially developed to provide manufacturing resource information to NC programmers using the APT NC programming language. The NCDBMS was among several Model 204 (M204) Data Base Management System (DBMS) based prototypes funded by the CAD/CAM DBMS (CCDBMS) corporate-wide project from 1982 to 1985. This effort was expanded to include a broader scope a of manufacturing data, functions and users, and later funded by the FWD in conjunction with the funding of Automated Numerical Control (ANC), also known as Generative NC, which originated at CVD.

An NCDBMS is needed at CVD, regardless of whether NC programming is to be done manually with APT or interactively with a Euclid, CATIA, UG-II or ComputerVision NC application. If an investment in an NCDBMS is made, then CVD may as well take advantage of ANC and eliminate much of the need for manual or interactive NC programming (2.5 axis parts). Significant improvements in machining efficiency can be achieved with ANC as well. A machine failure can easily be accommodated by re-running the ANC system, and denying it that resource. The ANC system will devise a new optimum fabrication strategy accordingly, and generate all of the necessary machine operations and operator visual aids.

Implementing ANC requires more than just installing the ANC software and training personnel to use it. ANC must be aware of the attributes of all of the fabrication resources that are to be made available to it if it is to select an optimum fabrication strategy. The information must be in digital form if it is to be useful to an ANC system.

There is nothing equivalent to the NCDBMS at CVD, or available commercially. The most economical way to support the implementation of ANC at CVD, it so clone the FWD NCDBMS and install it at CVD. Support from FWD will be required for this endeavor. That support may be funded by FWD in exchange for an implementation of NCDBMS on Oracle instead of M204, which will allow work stations other than those of IBM or compatibles to be used with the NCDBMS. Such a re-hosting of the NCDBMS would be consistent with CVD IRM interests.

The closest thing to an NCDBMS that CVD currently uses is the CMS, which is based on the Relational Information Manager (RIM) DBMS. It would be in the best interest of CVD IRM to re-host CMS on Oracle as well, but that may be unnecessary if the CMS data is migrated to the NCDBMS.

As a means of indicating the degree of information transferability between the CMS and the NCDBMS, and to illustrate the magnitude of data that must be manually entered into the NCDBMS if it is to accurately represent the manufacturing resources of the CVD, the CMS data was compared with the data in the Perishable Cutter Assembly (PCA) portion of the NCDBMS as shown in the Appendix. Many of the CMS attributes are repeated for each cutter type, which is only an instance of a class of tools known to the NCDBMS. The NCDBMS uses a more object-oriented approach in which a number of generic attributes are defined for a class of tools and inherited by each instance of a tool. The description of each instance is augmented by attributes particuliar to it. Consequently, a concatenation of CMS attribute names independent of the specific tools with which they are associated in the CMS was mapped to what appears to be their equivalent attribute names in the NCDBMS as delineated by the NCDBMS PCA "schema" in the Appendix. The schema was scanned, OCRd and the CMS data added.

This was by no means a concerted effort by intimately knowledgeable personnel, but it does indicate that CMS data extraction and NCDBMS (or Euclid) data load routines could be devised to automate the process of transferring attribute values from the CMS to the NCDBMS. However, the representational disparity is such that seems that an entirely manual transfer of data may be the more practical approach, especially given the need to update the CMS data.

The complete implementation of NCDBMS at CVD will require a significant investment. However, the commonality of the fabrication resources between FWD and CVD will mitigate the effort. Benefits may be derived immediately from ANC by limiting ANC to those parts which can be fabricated with one or more of the resources common to both CVD and FWD. The profits derived from these benefits can be used to fund the modification of the NCDBMS data to be more representative of the CVD.

The ANC also eliminates the need to do detailed process planning for 2.5 axis parts (80% of all machined parts). The application of the ANC technology to generative process planning was an integral part of the Integrated Management Systems (IMS) Integrated Process Planning System (IPPS) project. IMS funding reductions have forced the IPPS project to focus only on the use of a variant process planning tool know as Cimtelligence. The cost of implementing Cimtelligence, can be reduced by the implementation ANC, because the Cimtelligence work stations and training could then be limited to that which is necessary to manufacture 3 to 5 axis machined parts and non-machined parts.

The financial condition of the FWD is such that funding for additional ANC development will be terminated 4/5/91. If the ANC team is to remain intact, another source of funding is required. A minimum of 2.3 heads of funding for 3 months is required to sustaining the ANC team until additional funding from Abilene can be had. Given the decision by CVD to develop the Integrated Product Assurance Management (IPAM) system with about 2.5 fewer DSD heads than budgeted, there may be an opportunity to fund the ANC team with the IPAM budget. This will at least keep the ANC team intact to perform on behalf of CVD when the decision is made to implement ANC at CVD.

APPENDIX

PHYSICAL DATA MODEL : PERISHABLE CUTTER ASSEMBLY

FILE NAME : MACHTYPE

MAPS TO ENTITY(S) : MACHINE TYPE can use MACHINE TYPE/HOLDER and uses PCA/MACHINE TYPE

FIELD NAMES

FWD ANC CVD Cutter Management System

ALTERNATE INPUT MEDIUM

ALTERNATE INPUT MEDIUM CAPACITY

AMBIENT TEMPERATURE COMPENSATION

ANTI BACKLASH COMPENSATION

AUTO POSITION COMPENSATION

AXES CONTROLLED QUANTITY AXIS

AXIS DISPLAY TYPE

AXIS REVERSAL METHOD

BEAM AND SAG COMPENSATION

BROKEN TOOL DETECTION METHOD

CIRCULAR INTERPOLATION

CONTOUR FEEDRATE OVERRIDE INCREMENT

CONTOUR FEEDRATE OVERRIDE MAX

CONTOUR FEEDRATE OVERRIDE MIN

CONTROL BLOCK FORMAT

CONTROL DECIMAL FORMAT

CONTROL DIRECTORY SIZE

CONTROL INPUT CODE

CONTROL MEMORY CAPACITY

CONTROL ZERO SUPPRESSION

COOLANT CONTROL METHOD

CUTTER DIAMETER COMPENSATION METHOD

CUTTER LENGTH COMPENSATION METHOD

CUTTING TOOL TYPE

FIXTURE COMPENSATION METHOD

FIXTURE LOCATOR CRITICAL DIMENSION

FIXTURE LOCATOR DEPTH

FIXTURE LOCATOR LATITUDINAL POSITION

FIXTURE LOCATOR LATITUDINAL QUANTITY

FIXTURE LOCATOR LATITUDINAL SPACING

FIXTURE LOCATOR LONGITUDINAL POSITION

FIXTURE LOCATOR LONGITUDINAL QUANTITY

FIXTURE LOCATOR LONGITUDINAL SPACING

FIXTURE LOCATOR TYPE

FIXTURE MOUNT CRITICAL DIMENSION

FIXTURE MOUNT DEPTH

FIXTURE MOUNT LATITUD~NAL POSITION

FIXTURE MOUNT LATITUDINAL QUANTITY

FIXTURE MOUNT LATITUDINAL SPACING

FIXTURE MOUNT LONGITUDINAL POSITION

FIXTURE MOUNT LONGITUDINAL QUANTITY

FIXTURE MOUNT LONGITUDINAL SPACING

FIXTURE MOUNT TYPE

FOLLOWER ERROR MONITOR

HELICAL INTERPOLATION

HORSEPOWER MONITOR HP

HEAD SCREW COMPENSATION

MACHINE HEAD QUANTITY MAX SPINDLES

MACHINE HEAD SELECTION METHOD

MACHINE TYPE
MACHCODE

CONTROL MANUFACTURER

CONTROL MODEL

MACHINE CLASS

MACHINE FAMILY
MACHNAME (< class, family, group)

MACHINE GROUP

MCD COMPATIBLE MACHINE TYPE

POSITION FEEDRATE OVERRIDE INCREMENT

POSITION FEEDRATE OVERRIDE MAX

POSITION FEEDRATE OVERRIDE MIN

PRIMARY INPUT MEDIUM

PRIMARY INPUT MEDIUM CAPACITY

PRIMARY MACHTNE HEAD ORIENTATION

PRIMARY MACHINE HEAD TYPE

RAPID POSITIONING METHOD

SPINDLE GROWTH COMPENSATION SPNDLFAC?

TABLE LATITUDINAL AXIS

TABLE LATITUDINAL LENGTH

TABLE LATITUDINAL POSITION MIN MOVEY

TABLE LONGITUDINAL AXIS

TABLE LONGITUDINAL LENGTH

TABLE LONGITUDINAL POSITION MIN MOVEX

TABLE SHAPE

TABLE SURFACE PERPENDICULAR AXIS

TABLE SURFACE POSITION

TABLE TYPE
TABLE

WORKPIECE EXCHANGE METHOD

WORKPIECE INSPECTION METHOD

? PLANT

? BUILDING

? SPEED

? MOVEZ

? MOVEA

? MOVEB

? FEEDX

? FEEDY

? FEEDZ

? FEEDA

? FEEDB

? COMMENT1

? COMMENT2

? COMMENT3

? COMMENT4

FILE NAME : MACHHOLD

MAPS TO ENTITY(S) : MACHINE TYPE/HOLDER is a component of PCA/Machine type and can be used with MACHINE/HOLDER

EXPECTED NUMBER OF RECORDS : 2000

FIELD NAMES

HOLDER NUMBER

MACHINE TYPE

FILE NAME : HOLDER

MAPS TO ENTITY(S) : HOLDER is a component of PCA/MACHINE TYPE and can be used with MACHINE/HOLDER

EXPECTED NUMBER OF RECORDS : 500

FIELD NAMES

HOLDER BODY TAPER

HOLDER CLEAR LENGTH

HOLDER END CHAMFER

HOLDER END DIAMETER

HOLDER FLANGE TYPE

HOLDER GAGE LENGTH

HOLDER MAJOR DIAMETER

HOLDER MAXIMUM INSIDE DIAMETER

HOLDER MINIMUM INSIDE DIAMETER

HOLDER NUMBER

FILE NAME : MACHPCA

MAPS TO ENTITY(S) : PCA/MACHINE TYPE

EXPECTED NUMBER OF RECORDS : 2000

FIELD NAMES

HOLDER NUMBER

MACHINE TYPE

PCA NUMBER

FILE NAME : PCA

MAPS TO ENTITY(S) : PERISHABLE CUTTER ASSEMBLY can be used on PCA/MACHINE TYPE

EXPECTED NUMBER OF RECORDS : 5000

FIELD NAMES

BASIC CUTTER NUMBER TOOLID

CUTTER STICKOUT

HOLDER NUMBER

PCA ID NUMBER

PCA NUMBER

ADAPTOR NUMBER RECORD TYPE PRESET GAGE LENGTH

FILE NAME : CUTTER

MAPS TO ENTITY(S) : CUTTER is a component of PERISHABLE CUTTER ASSEMBLY

EXPECTED NUMBER OF RECORDS : 10000

FIELD NAMES

FWD ANC CVD Cutter Management System

BASIC CUTTER NUMBER TOOLID

BORING BAR DEPTH MAX

CUTTER CHAMFER TYPE POINTTYPE

CUTTER DESCRIPTION CUTTYPE

CUTTER END CHAMFER POINTANG

CUTTER END DIAMETER DIAMETER

CUTTER END RADIUS

CUTTER FLUTE LENGTH FLUTLNG

CUTTER GROUP

CUTTER HELIX ANGLE RHLH

CUTTER MAJOR DIAMETER MAXCUTDI

CUTTER MATERIAL MATERIAL

CUTTER MAXIMUM HORSEPOWER

CUTTER MAXIMUM RPM

CUTTER MINIMUM HORSEPOWER

CUTTER MINOR DIAMETER MINCUTDI

CUTTER ORIENTATION

CUTTER OVER ALL LENGTH TOTALLNG

CUTTER PILOT DIAMETER PILOTDIA

CUTTER PILOT LENGTH

CUTTER RAKE
AXLRAKE

CUTTER RECOMMENDED CHIP LOAD

CUTTER RECOMMENDED RPM

CUTTER RELIEF ANGLE CLRANGPR

CUTTER SHANK DIAMETER SHANKDIA

CUTTER TAPER ANGLE SIDEANGL

CUTTER TYPE
CUTTYPE

PRINCIPLE INERTIA MOMENT MAX

PRINCIPLE INERTIA MOMENT MIN

PRINCIPLE INERTIA MOMENT MIN ANGLE

PRINCIPLE INERTIA MOMENT YMAX

DOMAIN
RANGE

ESTIMATED CUTTER LIFE

FIELD NAME

MANUFACTURER CODE MFG

NUMBER OF FLUTES FLUTES, BLADES

OTHER SPECIAL RADIUS

OUTPUT FIELD NAME

THREADS PER INCH THRDPTCH

THRESHOLD CUTTER LIFE

CUTSYNID

STOCK

MINSTOCK

MAXSTOCK

POMSYNID

SHANKTPR

Attributes of FWD cutter instances not shown Attributes for various CVD cutter types: ORDERDAY

ORDERQTY

WIDTH

BLADES

HOLE

THREADSZ

TEETH

PITCH

GRIT

GRTWIDTH

GRTHIGHT

RADIALRK

SLOT

SLTWIDTH

PLTHLDIA

SERIES

CIRCLDIA

CLRANG2

CORRADIS

UNDERCUT

CTR2CTR

END2CTR

BOTMANGL

FILE NAME : ADAPTOR

MAPS TO ENTITY(S) : ADAPTOR is a component of PERISHABLE CUTTER ASSEMBLY

EXPECTED NUMBER OF RECORDS : 5000

FIELD NAMES

FWD ANC CVD Cutter Management System

ADAPTOR MAXIMUM INSIDE DIAMETER

ADAPTOR MINIMUM INSIDE DIAMETER

ADAPTOR SHANK DIAMETER

ADAPTOR NUMBER
TOOLID

BODY DIAMETER

ADPSYNID

ADPTYPE

SPNDLFAC

ADAPTER

SHANKMIN

SHANKMAX

GAGELNG

TOOL1

TOOL2

TOOL3

TOOL4

PCA FILE FIELD DEFINITIONS

CUTTER GROUP - GENERIC CLASSIFICATION BASED UPON TYPE OF OPERATION THE CUTTER PERFORMS.

CUTTER TYPE - FURTHER CLASSIFICATION BASED UPON THEIR CUTTING CHARACTERISTICS.

BASIC CUTTER NUMBER - UNIQUE IDENTIFIER OF A SPECIFIC MOOEL OF CUTTER. EITHER IDENTIFIED BY A GDFW DRAWING NUMBER OR A VENOOR SPECIFICATION NUMBER.

CUTTER RECOMMENDED CHIP LOAD - RECOMMENDED AMOUNT OF MATERIAL THAT EACH FLUTE OF THE TOOL SHOULD REMOVE PER ROTATION AT A GIVEN RPM ANO FEEORATE SETTING.

CUTTER DESCRIPTION - CONTAINS DETAILEO INFORMATION ABOUT THE PHYSICAL APPEARANCE AND THE CUTTING CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TOOL.

CUTTER TAPER ANGLE - AN ANGLE GROUND ON THE CUTTING EDGE OR FLUTES OF A TOOL TO PROOUCE AN ANGLED CUT.

CUTTER END RADIUS - A RADIUS GROUND ON THE EFFECTIVE CUTTING EDGE OF A TOOL TO PRODUCE A RELIEF OR CORNER RADIUS.

CUTTER FLUTE LENGTH - THE LENGTH OF THE EFFECTIVE CUTTING EDGE OF THE FLUTE. MEASURED FROM THE END OF THE CUTTER TO THE POINT AT WHICH THE FLUTES BLEND INTO THE SHANK.

CUTTER HELIX ANGLE - THE ANGLE (IN DEGREES) FROM THE SHANK AT WHICH THE FLUTE IS GROUND.

CUTTER MAJOR DIAMETER - THE LARGEST EFFECTIVE CUTTING DIAMETER OF A CUTTING TOOL.

CUTTER MINOR DIAMETER - THE SMALLEST EFFECTIVE CUTTING DIAMETER OF A CUTTING TOOL.

CUTTER MATERTAL - THE TYPE OF MATERIAL FROM WHICH THE CUTTER IS COMPOSED.

NUMBER OF FLUTES - THE NUMBER OF FLUTES A SPECIFIC CUTTER HAS.

CUTTER ORIENTATION - A CODE USED TO DESIGNATE THE CORRECT DIRECTION OF CUT FOR WHICH THE CUTTER WAS GROUNO.

OTHER SPECIAL RADIUS - A SPECAIL RAOIUS GROUNO ON THE CUTTER FOR SPECIAL RELIEF OR TO MACHINE A RADIUS ON A PART.

CUTTER OVER ALL LENGTH - THE TOTAL LENGTH OF THE CUTTER INCLUDING THE SHANK LENGTH THE FLUTE LENGTH AND THE PILOT LENGTH.

CUTTER PILOT DIAMETER - THE DIAMETER (IN INCHES) OF THE PILOT OF THE CUTTER.

CUTTER PILOT LENGTH - THE LENGTH (IN INCHES) OF THE PILOT OF THE CUTTER.

CUTTER PRINCIPAL MOMENT OF INERTIA MAX - THE MINIMUM ACCEPTABLE VAULE FOR THE MAXIMUM PRINCIPAL MOMENT OFINERRIA OF THE CUTTER CROSS SECTION IN INCHES TO THE 4TH POWER. DATA IS RELEVANT ONLY FOR THE CUTTER GROUPS OF ENO MILL AND DRILL.

CUTTER PRINCIPAL MOMENT OF INERTIA MIN - THE MINIMUM ACCEPTABLE VALUE FOR THE MINIMUM PRINCIPAL MOMENT OF INERTIA OF THE CUTTER CROSS SECTION IN INCHES TO THE 4TH POWER. THIS DATA IS RELEVANT ONLY FOR THE CUTTER GROUPS OF END MILL ANO DRILL.

CUTTER PRINCIPAL MOMENT OF INERTIA MIN ANGLE - THE ANGLE (IN DEGREES) WHERE THE CUTTER PRINCIPAL MOMENT OF INERTIA MIN IS LOCATED RELATIVE TO THE LINE THROUGH THE OPPOSITE TEETH THIS DATA IS RELAVANT ONLY FOR THE CUTTER GROUPS OF END MILL AND DRILL.

CUTTER RAKE - THE ANGLE (IN DEGREES) MEASURING THE DEVIATION OF THE TOOTH FACE FROM THE CUTTING EDGE.

CUTTER RELIEF ANGLE - THE ANGLE (IN OEGREES) GROUNO ON THE BACK OF THE FLUTE TO AVOID INTERFERENCE OF THE CUTTER WITH THE SURFACE BEING GENERATED. THE ANGLE BETWEEN THE LAND ON THE BACK OF THE CUTTER TOOTH AND THE TANGENT TO THE PERIFIERY OF THE CUTTING EDGE.

CUTTER RPM MAX - THE MAXIMUM REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE AT WHICH THE SPECIFIC CUTTER CAN SAFELY BE BURNED.

CUTTER RPM RECOMMENDED - THE REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE AT WHICH A SPECIFIC CUTTER TO BE USED TO ENSURE MAXIMUM CUTTING EFFICIENCY AND TOOL LIFE. A ROUGH ESTIMATE DEPENDANT UPON MATERIAL + USEAGE. ALSO USED BY CONVENTTONAL NC PROGRAMMING.

CUTTER SHANK DIAMETER - THE DIAMETER (IN INCHES) OF THE SHANK OF A CUTTER. THESHANK FITS INSIDE A HOLDER TO SECURE THE CUTTER TO A SPECIFIC HOLDER.

CUTTER TAP TYPE - FOR EACH TAP STORED IN THE CUTTER OATA BASE THIS FIELD CONTAINS A DESCRIPTION OF THE TYPE OF TAP

CUTTER THREAD PITCH - AN INOICATOR OF THE NUMBER OF THREADS THAT OCCUR IN ONE INCH OF A SPECIFIC CUTTER. THE THREAD PITCH IS EOUAL TO l/THE NUMBER OF THREADS PER INCH.

CUTTER THREAD SIZE - THE SIZE (IN INCHES) OF THE THREADS OF A CUTTER. THE SIZE IS MEASURED FROM THE EDGE OF THE PITCH TO THE OPPOSITE PITCH.

CUTTER THRESHOLD LIFE - AN ESTIMATION OF THE LIFE SPAN (AS A PERCENTAGE OF ESTIMATED CUTTER LIFE). ESTIMATED CUTTER LIFE -((ESTIMATED CUTTER LIFE X THRESHOLD CUTTER LIFE )/100) IS THE POINT AT WHICH A CUTTER IS BEGINNING TO BECOME DULL AND MAY BE REPLACED AT THIS POINT.

MANUFACTURER CODE - THE CODE REPRESENTING THE MANUFACTURER OR SUPPLIER OF THE TOOL.

CUTTER END CHAMFER- AN ANGLE GROUND ON THE CUTTING END OF A TOOL TO PRODUCE AN ANGLED CUT.

CUTTER FIELD DEFINITIONS AS APPLIED TO END MILLS

EXAMPLE ENTITY DESCRIPTION OF ONE OF NINE CUTTER TYPES

ENTITY NAME: END MILL

DESCRIPTION: A ROTARY CUTTER WITH ONE OR MORE CUTTING ELEMENTS (TEETH), WHICH INTERMITTENTLY ENGAGE THE WORK PIECE AND REMOVE MATERIAL THROUGH RELATIVE MOVEMENT OF THE CUTTER AND WORKPIECE. SHANK MOUNTED TO A MACHINE TOOL AND HAS TEETH ON THE END AND THE PERIPHERY.

ATTRIBUTES:

See FILE NAME : CUTTER above.

PERISHABLE CUTTER PARAMETER LIST 4/21/86

x denotes parameter required

END MILL VISUAL AID PARAMETER REQUIREMENTS