A Case Study for International Remote Machining

Owing to the more enhanced networking, the designed data for manufacturing can be transmitted internationally. Therefore, the production of the potential product at one side of the world according to the design requirement at the other side of the world is possible and quicker than ever before. The shipment can be eliminated by producing the product at the potential market place. This paper demonstrates the development of a machining system showing the manufacture of a product based on this idea. Unix, Microsoft Windows and NFS under the LAN and internet environment are adopted for the data communication and message passing in the devised international remote machining system. The personal computer is the server of the machining centre. A C program is developed for the direct control of the machining centre through DNC2 interface. The command of machining process is issued from Sun Sparc station to the personal computer through internet. The devised system structure can also be extended to link with automatic workpiece loading system, eg robot and AGV, to form an automatic machining cell for CIM. The requirements of achieving such an international remote machining cell that links machining centre and robot are also discussed.