A STEP Compliant Framework for Cutting Force Prediction for NC Turning Operations

Abstract

With STEP-NC (ISO 14649) being gradually accepted as new standard for programming computerized numerical control (CNC) machine tools, new technologies and computer systems in the design and manufacturing process chain are emerging, and conventional systems are reshaping, to support interoperable and intelligent manufacturing. This paper addresses issues and solutions for the adaptation. In the first place, a strategy for adapting legacy CNC turning machine tools to the emerging standard is presented. In the second place, the new data model is analyzed and a practical way to retrieve and extract manufacturing information from the STEP-NC part program for turning process is presented. In the third place a workable approach to calculating the cutting force and chip load in turning operations is presented based on the mechanistic modeling method. Finally the proposed approach is implemented in a prototype system and tested with an example STEP-NC program for turning, which shows not only the feasibility of the proposed approach for information extraction and process evaluation, but also the possibility of using simple transitional systems to bridge the gap between the sophisticated STEP-NC part program and conventional CNC machines.