An object oriented approach to CAPP-CAFP System for Prismatic Parts

摘要

The advancement of a Computer Aided Design/Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAD/CAM) system provided the ability to automate the manufacturing tasks efficiently. The process plan is an important step in any organization to manufacture a product. Computer Aided Process Plan (CAPP) requires extensive manufacturing knowledge about manufacturing capabilities, tools, fixtures, materials, costs, and machine availability to generate the detailed process plans automatically. Fixture Planning is an important aspect of any CAPP systems. The Computer-Aided Fixture Planning (CAFP) approach will reduce the lead time involved in process planning. Modular fixture components are designed for flexibility and inter-changeability. In this paper, a novel methodology is developed to generate process and fixture plans automatically. The developed system is implemented using Visual C++ and STEP files of the designed components. The modularity concept is incorporated to obtain the suitable locating and clamping positions. The suggested methodology is tested and validated using a case study.