Form-feature modeling for integration of product design and machining process planning

This paper discusses the product data flow in a manufacturing system for machined parts. Through consideration of this product data flow, a form-feature modeling system is developed for the generation of a product model. The resulting product model contains descriptions of these form features and their dimensions to datum surfaces. For functional machined parts, the functional form features used by designers and the manufacturing form features used by process planners are nearly identical. Currently, machined part designers produce a representation of the information about the form features and their dimensions, which usually is not in an appropriate form for input into automated process planning systems. With the system described in this paper, both the designer and the process planning system may share the same description of form feature and dimension information. The dimensioning information is automatically converted into the appropriate form for production. Machined part features output by the system are dimensiond and described appropriately for direct use in production systems. With such an integrated system, the difficulty in converting product design to process plans is eliminated.