Research of Characteristics and Architecture for Virtual Manufacturing Technology

The virtual manufacturing technology mainly provide visual, auditory information, to achieve "what you see is what you get" the effect. Several typical definition of virtual manufacturing dominate in this fields were listed out, based on which expressed an explicit interpretation. Main features and three type of virtual manufacturing, such as design-centered, machine-centered and control centered virtual manufacturing were analyzed respectively. The virtual manufacturing system, supported by cutter tool magazine, pallet storage, production database, material storage and NC storage, have been demonstrated in an architecture figure. Finally, the author concluded the important role of virtual manufacturing and illustrated an example of applying virtual manufacturing in five-axis machining process.