Systematic development of an interface for automatic generation of STEP-NC (AP238) code for milled features

ABSTRACT

STEP-based exchange of product data helps in faster processing of information and reduces the errors due to human intervention across the enterprise. As STEP-NC carries high-level information of machining processes and features, it is an efficient format for controlling the machine tool compared to G-M codes. With its rich set of information, STEP AP238 (AIM format of STEP-NC) is a more sustainable and reliable format than ISO 14649 (ARM format of STEP-NC). In the field of STEP-NC, the majority of researchers have worked in the development of ISO 14649 models from CAD/CAPP models. With the complex structure of AP238, it remains comparable untouched by majority of STEP-NC researchers. In this article, a systematic development of an interface for the generation of STEP AP238 code of conformance class-3 (a feature-based code) level using its different modules is presented. The working of the developed interface is demonstrated for two workpieces based on AP203 and AP224 file format having typical features, which successfully simulated on a STEP-NC Simulator. The details of the development of STEP-NC interface given in this article are highly useful for the researchers and practitioners for a better understanding and implementing STEP AP238 controllers.

KEYWORDS:

• STEP-NC
• STEP AP238
• AP224
• CAD/CAM
• simulation

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the team of LKSoftWare GmbH for providing open source of JSDAI^TM. The authors are also thankful to STEP Tools Inc. for providing personal edition of STEP-NC Machine^TM.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.