A Layered Software Architecture for the Management of a Manufacturing Company

In this paper we describe a layered software architecture in the management of a manufactur-ing company that intensively uses computer technology. Application tools, new and legacy, after the updating, operate in a context of an open web oriented architecture. The software architecture enables the integration and interoperability among all tools that support business processes. Manufacturing Executive System and Text Mining tools are excellent interfaces, the former both for internal production and management processes and the latter for external processes coming from the market. In this way, it is possible to implement, a computer integrated factory, flexible and agile, that immediately responds to customer requirements.ICT, Service Oriented Architecture, Web Services, Computer-Integrated Factory, Application Software

ISO 14649 (STEP-NC): New Standards for CNC Machining

The changing economic climate has made global manufacturing a growing reality over the last decade, forcing companies from east and west and all over the world to collaborate beyond geographic boundaries in the design, manufacture and assemble of products. The ISO10303 and ISO14649 Standards (STEP and STEP-NC) have been developed to introduce interoperability into manufacturing enterprises so as to meet the challenge of responding to production on demand. The paper focuses on the use of this new standard to address the process planning and machining of turn/mill discrete components. Due to the complexity of programming these machines there is a need to model their process capability to improve the interoperable manufacturing capability in places such as turning centres. Finally a proposed computational environment for a STEP-NC compliant system for turning operations (SCSTO) is described. And supported by the specification of information models and constructed using a structured methodology and object-oriented methods. SCSTO was developed to generate a Part 21 file based on machining features to support the interactive generation of process plans utilizing feature extraction. A case study component has been developed to prove the concept for using the milling and turning parts of ISO14649 to provide a turn-mill CAD/CAPP/CAM environment

Process Comprehension for Interoperable CNC Manufacturing

Over the last 40 years manufacturing industry has enjoyed a rapid growth with the support of various computer-aided systems (CAD, CAPP, CAM etc.) known as CAx. Since the first Numerically Controlled (NC) machine appeared in 1952, there have been many advances in CAx resource capabilities. The information integration and interoperability between different manufacturing resources has become an important and popular research area over the last decade. Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) machines are an important link in the manufacturing chain and the major contributor to the production capacity of manufacturing industry today. However, most of the research has focused on the information integration of upper systems in the CAD/CAPP /CAM/CNC manufacturing chain, leaving the shop floor as an isolated information island. In particular, there is limited opportunity to capture and feed shopfloor knowledge back to the upper systems. Furthermore, the part programs for the machines are not exchangeable due to the. machine specific postprocessors. Thus there is a further need to consider information interoperability between different CNC machine and other systems. This research investigates the reverse transformation of the CNC part programmes into higher level of process information, entitled process comprehension, to enable the shopfloor interoperability. A novel framework of universal process comprehension is specified and designed. The framework provides a reverse direction of information flow from the CNC machine to upper CAx systems, enabling the interoperability and recycling of the shopfloor knowledge. A prototype implementation of the framework is realised and utilised to demonstrate the functionalities through three industrially inspired test components. The major contribution of this research to knowledge is the new vision of the shopfloor interoperability associated with process knowledge capture and reuse. The research shows that process comprehension of part programmes can provide an effective solution to the issues of the shopfloor interoperability and knowledge reuse in manufacturing industries.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

DESIGN OF A CUSTOM SOFTWARE APPLICATION TO MONITOR AND COMMUNICATE CNC MACHINING PROCESS INFORMATION TO AID IN CHATTER IDENTIFICATION

In any manufacturing environment, it is important to be able to monitor the Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machining process so that high quality parts can be produced in the least amount of time in order to be profitable. This involves acquiring the proper parameters needed from the machine\u27s controller, which can prove to be difficult with proprietary machine tools that tend to limit access to the internal data collected by the controller. This closed approach to controller design also means that many technological advances that have recently become prevalent in society are not being adopted in the manufacturing industry, preventing the interoperability between hardware and software components and adding to the shortcomings in communicating the necessary machining parameters to machine operators. The project described in this thesis offers a solution to some of the communication, productivity, and part quality problems in the American manufacturing industry by providing a custom software application that integrates MTConnect, an emerging interoperable data communication standard, with proprietary data acquisition tools and custom sensors to monitor and communicate CNC machining process information. The application described in this thesis was designed to aid in the identification of chatter conditions to the machine operator and to other users to take action for chatter suppression and avoidance. Chatter is an undesirable phenomenon that can reduce part quality and increase tool wear. These consequences result in higher costs to replace damaged parts and tools as well as increasing the amount of machine downtime which can reduce a company\u27s overall productivity. Once chatter is detected in the audible frequency range, damage to the workpiece has already occurred. Therefore, an early identification and communication method with the machine tool is warranted to easily monitor the machine in the event of impending dynamic part damage. This application was developed to provide a means to monitor cutting conditions to reduce and prevent chatter in the machining process and to aid in analysis to avoid subsequent unstable operating conditions. Preserving part quality and productivity in manufacturing is also dependent on accurate information provided about the specific parts involved in the machining process. In addition to monitoring the process, this application facilitates the communication of part-specific information by improving the input and tracking of part numbers, and organizes the machining process information in a central location according to the specific part. Improving the part tracking process can aid in the organization of data to analyze the machining process for increased quality in future operations. The application can also be customized for other implementations, which can benefit many different industrial manufacturing facilities as well as academics in performing experimental research. It is important for the manufacturing industry and its partners in academia to be able to bridge the communication gap to increase the knowledge of the machining process and therefore manufacturing productivity and profitability

STEP COMPLIANT APPROACH FOR TURN-MILL OPERATIONS

Current machine tools have incurred challenges on limitation such as part programming complexity of G and M code, weak integration of digital machine tools and coverage of universal data modeling for product and manufacturing resources. In response to this manufacturing system requirement, Standard for Exchange of Product data (STEP) and its implementation on developing an interface for the next generation of machine tool controllers (STEP-NC) has become a concern of research interest and performed on basic manufacturing technology limited to a unit domain such as turning, milling or Wire EDM. Therefore; extending this STEP implementation on multipurpose machine tools such as turn-mill machines is mandatory since the machines are the main component in these industries. The research work offers a STEP-NC compliant interface supporting turn-mill machining environment identified as SCSTMO

STEP-NC-compliant implementation to support mixed-control technologies applied to stone-processing machines based on industrial automation standards

STEP-NC (Standard for the Exchange of Product Model Data–Numerical Control) for metal milling and turning is not implemented by industrial computer numerical controllers. Solutions reported are prototypes based on post-processing in G-code. Moreover, minority machining processes, such as stone cutting, have not yet been contemplated in the STEP-NC standard. This article takes that sector as a use case. An extended STEP-NC model for circular saw stone-cutting operations is proposed, and a prototype automation implementation is developed to work with this extended model. This article shows how modern technological resources for coordinated axes control provided by many industrial controllers for the automation of general-purpose machines can speed up the processes of implementing STEP-NC numerical controllers. This article proposes a mixed and flexible approach for STEP-NC-based machine automation, where different strategies can coexist when it comes to executing STEP-NC machining files, so controllers do not need to implement the standard in an exhaustive way for all the possible features, but only at selected ones when convenient. This is demonstrated in a prototype implementation which is able to process STEP-NC product files with mixed-feature types: standard milling and non-standard sawblade features for stone processing

Integration Framework of MES Toward Data Security Interoperation

© 2020, Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The core problem of the application of MES (Manufacturing Execution System) in intelligent manufacturing systems is integration, which solves the problem of the data interoperation between the distributed manufacturing systems. The previous researches on MES integration rarely considered the problem of system data security access. A three-level data security access mechanism based on the independence of the system administrators, security administrators, and security auditors is proposed which integrated into the MES integration framework to guarantee the business and engineering data security access for the related distributed clients. The principle is using the domain to make the logical isolation for different clients and data sources and applying the pre-defined data sharing rules for safe access. In the proposed MES integration framework model, the data interoperation between MES and the engineering software systems is discussed which includes ERP (Enterprise Resource Management), CAPP (Computer Aided Process Planning), DNC (Distribution Numerical Control), WMS (Warehouse Management System), and SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition), etc., the implementation method of personalized data display GUI is discussed as well. The study is based on the KMMES developed by Wuhan KM-Software of China, and it has been deployed in over forty companies from the sections of aerospace, automotive, shipbuilding and other industries

Industry 4.0 implementation strategy for Small Medium Enterprises

I4.0 implementation strategy is a tool that aids small and medium enterprises to meet the fourth industrial revolution pre-requisites and standards. The main objective of the current research that has been achieved is that it established an industry 4.0 implementation strategy for SMEs, that is capable of providing enterprises with the most effective road map to overcome the obstacles faced by SMEs during transformation and accomplish the fourth industrial revolution’s standards. A roadmap and the implementation strategy will be specifically tailored to the participating enterprise, based on their assessment scores. The implementation strategy requires four consecutive steps including Maturity Assessment, Influence Assessment, Roadmap Construction, and Implementation. An Industry 4.0 implementation strategy has been devised to increase the accuracy of assessing SME’s technological maturity level by providing a weighting factor for relevant implementation dimensions by using an Analytic hierarchy process (AHP). Weight factors were established to identify dimensions that are most influential at small/medium manufacturing enterprises and prioritize their transformation. A total maturity score of the enterprise as a whole valued between 0-100 is determined at the end of the maturity assessment through utilizing radar charts. This research includes a case study that was conducted at SPM Automation Inc., a local small-sized enterprise, where the proposed four-step implementation strategy was conducted and succeeded to measure the current I4.0 maturity score which was 33% and create an implementation strategy that targets the most influential dimensions and prioritize their transformation