Machine Tool Selection in Computer Aided Process Planning Systems Available to Purchase

Reports on ongoing research in developing generative process planning systems. Presents a feature‐based model for describing component geometry and its structural aspects (connectivity) and a hierarchical structure for form features definition and classification,as well as methods for representing the capabilities of machine tools. These models form the basis for decision making in the prototype process planning system GENPLAN. As an example, reports on how the models are being used for reasoning about component geometry and a linguistic approach that is adopted for machine tool selection in process planning.