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STEP into Distributed Manufacturing with STEP-NC

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Process Planning and Scheduling for Distributed Manufacturing

Part of the book series: Springer Series in Advanced Manufacturing ((SSAM))

Abstract

As the technological information of enterprises becomes more and more distributed, continuous data acquisition in decentralised computer numerical control (CNC) machine tools and databases is necessary for a distributed manufacturing system. This chapter focuses on an emerging ISO standard, informally known as STEP-NC, and the role it plays in closing the gap between design and manufacturing for a distributed and collaborative manufacturing environment. This new standard defines a new generation of NC programming language and is fully compliant with STEP. STEP-NC brings richer information to the CNC machine tools, hence intelligent machining and control are made possible. Its Web-enabled feature gives itself an additional dimension in that distributed manufacturing can be readily supported. A case study toward the end demonstrates such a system. The system adopts a three-tiered, Internet-based network architecture, so that designing and manufacturing data can be exchanged over the Internet. A STEP-NC adapter has been developed to convert generic manufacturing information (at the task level) into native manufacturing information (at the method level) for a chosen machine tool. A native CNC system database has been developed to capture the conditions and capabilities of a machine tool and cutting tool. This database is the foundation of the whole system since it contains all the native information about a specific CNC machine.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering School of Engineering, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand

    Xun Xu

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  1. Xun Xu
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Integrated Manufacturing Technologies Institute, National Research Council of Canada, London, Ontario, N6G 4X8, Canada

    Lihui Wang PhD, PEng (Senior Research Officer) & Weiming Shen PhD, PEng (Senior Research Officer) (Senior Research Officer) &  (Senior Research Officer)

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© 2007 Springer-Verlag London Limited

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Xu, X. (2007). STEP into Distributed Manufacturing with STEP-NC. In: Wang, L., Shen, W. (eds) Process Planning and Scheduling for Distributed Manufacturing. Springer Series in Advanced Manufacturing. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84628-752-7_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84628-752-7_16

  • Publisher Name: Springer, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-84628-751-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-84628-752-7

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

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