An Information Model for Process Control on Machine Tools

Abstract

Recent advances in technologies involved in CNC manufacturing systems have provided industry with the capability to machine complex products. However, there is still no guarantee for these advanced systems to manufacture products to their required specification the first time. This results in large scrap rates of manufactured components and requires skilful resources (human/bespoke solutions) to adjust the involved processes. The solution to this problem is the development of a machine tool process control system which would be able to provide the corrective measures in-process. At the core of this system, is a kernel to map the information in the manufacturing CAx chain. Using the existing high level information on component design, machining processes, manufacturing resources and measurement, process control can be maintained. This leads to seamless information flow in the manufacturing process chain. This paper presents and describes a machine tool process information model. A computational platform for developing a machine tool process control system has then been discussed. This computational prototype has been further realised and demonstrated using a prismatic case study component.