Automated Process Planning for the Manufacture of Lifters

FCAPP for the manufacture of injection moulded components, which will facilitate the standardisation of process planning and significantly reduce lead-time. The main components of the mould such as the slider, the lifter and the mould base are considered in this system. In this paper, the automated process planning for the manufacture of a lifter is described. A combination of the generative and variant approach (hybrid approach) is used for the development of the system. The input to the system is a 3D lifter model. First, the system classifies the lifter types and extracts the feature parameters from the model. Each lifter type refers to a standard process plan template, in which a set of processes is presented in sequence. Secondly, the system selects the machines, cutters, fixtures, and cutting parameters for each process in the plan template, based on the actual dimensions of the features and constraints and rules defined in the system and the available machining resources. The process plan execution is then simulated on the screen step by step.