The possibilities for application of STEP-NC in actual production conditions

Abstract

With the rapid advancement of internet technologies (IT) and computer numerical control (CNC) technologies, the production environment has significantly changed in the last two decades. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standard 6983 (G-code), which is still being used as a link between computer aided design/computer aided process planning/computer aided manufacturing (CAD/CAPP/CAM) and CNC system, represents an obstacle for the full integration of design and manufacturing. The result of efforts to eliminate these obstacles and shortcomings of developed standards for data exchange and sharing is the development of (STEP-ISO 10303) standard, as well as its extension to numerical control STEP-NC. This paper shows the current possibility of implementing STEP-NC in integration of computer aided technologies CAx and CNC systems in actual production conditions. Two scenarios represent a new approach to programming CNC machine tools using the STEP-NC protocol, which is explained in detail with IDEF0 diagrams, with defining necessary equipment and software. Implementation of the STEP-NC protocol described by the integration definition for function modeling (IDEF0) methodology was experimentally verified on specific examples for both scenarios, with the application of available CAD/CAM systems and the STEP-NC machine software, as well as appropriate virtual and physical CNC machine tools.