Integrating the CAx process chain for STEP-compliant NC manufacturing of asymmetric parts

Acceleration of product development, decrease of NC programming effort and increase of product quality are demands from enterprises to make their products competitive. These requirements are hardly met by the today’s used CAx process chain which is based on a multitude of interfaces and the standardized control data format ISO 6983. New concepts of product data modelling are necessary for a structured and object-oriented description of machining. The development of STEP-NC (ISO 14649) over the last ten years has brought new opportunities for automating the CAx process chain. The present paper portrays a methodology for implementation of a standardized CAx process chain for rotational asymmetric parts, which are described in the technology-oriented process model for turning (ISO 14649-12). The methodology is realized through a suite of STEP-compliant NC software tools, based on STEP-compliant information models to integrate the whole chain from design to machining. Component case studies are used to demonstrate and analyse the methodology. The final part of the paper discusses the major issues and deficiencies related to the current phase of development of this new approach.