ABSTRACT
The flexible manufacturing system was an ambitious but evolutionary step for British Aerospace, and combines both off-the-shelf and specially designed devices. Machining the titanium and steel is very hard on cutting tools, and British Aerospace has recently installed an automatic tool change system to allow the unmanned periods of operation. British Aerospace therefore decided to prepare a kit of tools for each aluminium billet to be processed. This kit is coordinated to arrive at the machine with its corresponding billet. The host software is responsible for monitoring tool identification, location and condition. Inspection on an LK Microvector coordinate measuring machine assists the host in monitoring tool performance. A VAX 11/750 controls the entire system through an Ethernet local area network. The control software is a recent development which is based on the British Aerospace control architecture. It was the subject of an 18 month collaborative venture with GEC.
