DESIGN, MACHINING AND PRODUCTION INTEGRATION PROBLEMS IN MANUFACTURING AUTOMATION

摘要

This paper describes the process of integrating engineering design, manufacturing, and production in the area of manufacturing automation. The work was done within the scope of a Mechanical Engineering senior course that's objective was to introduce students to the processes of advanced manufacturing and to solving practical engineering problems in manufacturing automation. The students' efforts at integration covered automation of conceptual and geometric designs, automation of machining process, and machine sequence optimization. The CAD/CAM software, CAMM3 Micromodeler, G-code, NX8, Solid Works, DELMIA/QUEST, and Mastercam were used successfully in a sequence. A survey of the students' opinions about the effectiveness and user friendliness of the software was summarized at the end of the semester. The elements of the course were integrated in the Final Project. Full automation of integrated design and manufacturing data exchange were found to be too difficult to accomplish. However, the use of the automation software in a sequence, together with data export and import, marks a significant step forward towards integrated manufacturing automation. The research to accomplish this will continue and the results will be applied in order to reinforce the teaching and practice of Manufacturing Automation.