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ABSTRACT

Computer Aided Process Planning (CAPP) plays a key role m the development
of computer integrated manufacturmg (CIM) since it links design and manufacturing
Most of the existing CAPP systems deal with only specific operations e g
CAPP system for Turning, Milling or Grinding etc It’s a very essential requirement
of the technologists, to have a broad based CAPP system providing all such provisions
on a single platform Moreover, majorities of the CAPP systems extract features &
dimensional details from the user interactively, which is a tedious task Also, this
method has a tendency to introduce some amount error due to the user’s
misinterpretation of the drawmg It’s a fact that, today most of the product information
is bemg stored m CAD models Hence, the CAPP system must have some mechanism
to extract the product feature mformation from the CAD models The research is
already getting oriented towards it
In the literature review on CAPP, it has been also, observed that, not much
attention has been given to the requirements and feasibility with reference to small
general machme shops Most of the systems are developed based on complex
algorithms and, need expensive hardware support
In the perspective of all the above arguments, present thesis attempts to provide
a CAPP system in various modules, encompassing few of the machining operations of
a general machme shop An Integrated, Intelligent and Feature based approach,
deriving benefits from both Variant and Generative methods has been used
Dependmg on the task, the standard process sequence is retrieved for specific task,
whereas the details of each operation in it are generated based on theoretical rules, data
base or practical constramts Commonly used machining processes viz Turning,
Milling and Grinding have been developed in independent modules, wherein the
process planning can be done for the components, with features requiring these
operations A special module has been developed for, Automatic Extraction of
manufacturmg features from 2-D and 3-D Sohd models in CAD The mnovative part of
the present work is that, it has the provision for accepting both these types of CAD
models
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The present work has been developed on the following basis

• A uniform product description based on proper features defined either through
user’s interaction or CAD Models
• The use of different module for each type of manufacturing operation
• The possibility of facilitating user interaction wherever required
• An effective common platform on which all these modules are made available to
the user just at the click of the mouse
The outcome depends on the requirements and constraints of each module
and, may be of following type/s
S Feature data
^ Process routmg/sequence
^ Process Plan (General type)
S CNC Part program

The system has been designed to accept the input information such as Product
Feature data and technological attributes both, in an mteractive manner and by using
Automatic Features Extraction
In general, the modules catermg specific kinds operations such as Turning^
milling and grmding use the Interaction with the user to receive the mput Also, the
process plans generated, for these modules is for general purpose and “rough”
considermg the requirements of small machme shops However, the objective is to
prove the concept Provision has been kept m the software to add details of any
degree to the process plans CAPP module here, performs various processes planning
functions viz selecting and sequencing of operations based on features extracted,
selection of machme tools, selection of cutting parameters, calculation of machming
time and. generates a detailed process plan If necessary, options are given to the user
to seek the concurrence in decisions The content of the process plan depends upon the
task requirements Milling module has a special provision to generate CNC Part
program The complete manual part program (m G and M codes) suitable for a modem
CNC control system is generated The part program has been validated on a CNC
Milling machme
Automatic Extraction of manufacturing features from CAD models has been
successfully attempted for 2D and 3D solid CAD Models 2D CAD models are
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essentially manufacturing drawings represented in orthographic views Drawing

Interchange File (DXF) interface has been used intelligently in the system to extract the
features
Extracting the manufacturing features from 3D solid CAD models is probably®,
more challenging task The crux of reported work indicates that, it is done using
complex mterfaces such as IGES etc and is based on complex algorithms In this
work a simple logical system based on DXF interface has been attempted successfully
These two modules, have been designed to support, most of the common
manufacturing features covering both the Prismatic and Cylindrical types
The technological and manufacturing attributes on the extracted features are
accepted through the interaction with the user Thus, the system takes care of the latest
concept of Product Model m CAD technology
It is mteractive User's Friendly Software developed in Turbo Pascal, C and
Visual basic The information such as machine tools available, tooling, surface finish,
tolerances etc is to be furnished by the user Optimum and balanced cutting
parameters are selected by usmg some criteria such as maximum tool life, maximum
production rate or from database Database of cutting parameters, machine tools,
process capabilities etc are kept ready for reference whenever necessary The front end
and the common platform for, all the modules have been designed usmg Visual Basic
Ver 5 The software designed is suitable for any IBM PC/AT compatible, affordable
for any small budget general machme shop
In general, a CAPP system based on fundamentals coupled with latest concepts
on a logical approach has been presented specially to suit, small machme shops One
more objective of the present work is that, by understanding and usmg this simple
system, the manufacturing and product engmeers should be motivated towards the
development and use of more extensive and realistic CAPP systems