PROCESS INTEGRATION DETERMINING SYSTEM AND METHOD

• US 20100324713A1
• Filed: 06/22/2010
• Published: 12/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/22/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Jtekt Corporation (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Jtekt Corporation (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Kuwano, Yoshimasa, Teramoto, Kazunari, OKITA, Toshiyuki
• Granted Patent: US 8,301,293 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/98
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/40938 Tool management
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/4097 characterised by using design data to control NC machines, e.g. CAD/CAM G05B19/4093 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/36289 Cutting, machining conditions by optimisation of time, cost, accuracy
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/36296 Order, select, determine, change machining sequence, order
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/36352 Select tool as function of part shape, number of grooves and groove width
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/36357 Tool line up, select right order of tool, optimal tool order loading, tool file
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/02 Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]

Abstract

A machined shape determining step of determining a machined shape machined by a basic tooling or basic tooling template of each machining efficiency group from a material shape (S19), a tooling determining step of determining an optimal tooling comprising a combination of a tool, a holder and a tool projection length on the basis of information of the tools and the holders, stored in a tool holder information storage unit, the combination having a maximum machining efficiency and being able to form the material shape into a corresponding one of the machined shapes without interfering with the machined shape (S20), a process candidate determining step of determining an optimal process candidate using the optimal tooling of each machining efficiency group (S21), and a process determining step of determining an optimal process on the basis of the optimal process candidate of each machining efficiency group (S10), are executed.

Claims

1. An optimal process determining system comprising:

a shape memory unit that stores a material shape and a product shape;

a tool holder information storage unit that stores information of a plurality of tools and information of a plurality of holders;

a basic tooling storage unit that stores a basic tooling composed of a combination of a tool, a holder and a tool projection length or a basic tooling template corresponding to the basic tooling for each of a plurality of machining efficiency groups; and

a process determining unit that determines an optimal process, composed of a plurality of individual processes and a sequence of the plurality of individual processes, for forming the product shape from the material shape, wherein

the process determining unit executes;

a machined shape determining step of determining a machined shape machined by the basic tooling or basic tooling template of each machining efficiency group from the material shape;

a tooling determining step of determining an optimal tooling composed of a combination of a tool, a holder and a tool projection length on the basis of information of the tools and the holders, stored in the tool holder information storage unit, the combination having a maximum machining efficiency and being able to form the material shape into a corresponding one of the machined shapes without interfering with the machined shape;

a process candidate determining step of determining an optimal process candidate using the optimal tooling of each machining efficiency group; and

a process determining step of determining the optimal process on the basis of the optimal process candidate of each machining efficiency group, and wherein

each of the individual processes of the optimal process includes a tooling, comprising the tool, the holder and the tool projection length, and a removal region.

2. The process determining system according to claim 1, wherein

the tool holder information storage unit stores information of the tools having a plurality of edge diameters,

the tooling determining step determines the optimal tooling for each of the edge diameters of the tools, stored in the tool holder information storage unit, and

the process candidate determining step determines the optimal process candidate using the optimal tooling of each of the machining efficiency groups and each of the edge diameters of the tools.

3. The process determining system according to claim 1, wherein

the process determining unit executes:

a total removal region determining step of determining a total removal region when all the plurality of optimal process candidates are executed; and

a temporary process determining step of determining a temporary optimal process that is able to remove the total removal region when part of the plurality of optimal process candidates is excluded, and wherein

the process determining step determines the optimal process on the basis of the temporary optimal process.

4. The process determining system according to claim 3, wherein

the temporary process determined in the temporary process determining step is a process that has a shortest actual machining time when part of the plurality of process candidates is excluded.

5. The process determining system according to claim 1, wherein

the process determining unit executes:

a removable region determining step of determining a removable region for each of a plurality of tool axis positions when the material shape is machined by the basic tooling or the basic tooling template; and

an optimal tool axis position determining step of determining the tool axis position at which a removal volume is maximal among the plurality of removable regions, wherein

the machined shape determining step determines the machined shape at the tool axis position calculated in the optimal tool axis position determining step, and wherein

each of the individual processes of the optimal process includes the tooling, the tool axis position and the removal region.

6. The process determining system according to claim 1, wherein

the basic tooling storage unit stores a plurality of the basic tooling templates, and

the machined shape determining step determines a machined shape machined by the basic tooling template of each machining efficiency group from the material shape.

7. The process determining system according to claim 6, wherein

the plurality of basic tooling templates include a template having an inverted conical holder portion and a template having a circular cylindrical holder portion.

8. The process determining system according to claim 7, wherein

the template having the circular cylindrical holder portion is a template having a holder portion in which a small-diameter circular cylindrical shape and a large-diameter circular cylindrical shape are connected to form an inverted stepped shape.

9. A process determining method comprising:

storing a material shape and a product shape in a shape memory unit;

storing information of a plurality of tools and a plurality of holders in a tool holder information storage unit;

storing a basic tooling comprising a combination of a tool, a holder and a tool projection length or a basic tooling template corresponding to the basic tooling for each of a plurality of machining efficiency groups in a basic tooling storage unit;

a machined shape determining step of determining a machined shape machined by the basic tooling or basic tooling template of each machining efficiency group from the material shape;

a tooling determining step of determining an optimal tooling comprising a combination of a tool, a holder and a tool projection length on the basis of information of the tools and the holders, stored in the tool holder information storage unit, the combination having a maximum machining efficiency and being able to form the material shape into a corresponding one of the machined shapes without interfering with the machined shape;

a process candidate determining step of determining an optimal process candidate using the optimal tooling of each machining efficiency group; and

a process determining step of determining an optimal process, comprising a plurality of individual processes and a sequence of the individual processes, for forming the product shape from the material shape, on the basis of the process candidate of each machining efficiency group, wherein

each of the individual processes of the optimal process includes a tooling, comprising the tool, the holder and the tool projection length, and a removal region.