ABSTRACT
CNC/Robots CNC/Robots CNC/Robots CNC/Robots
FMS Calibration Inspection
Manufacturing process, which includes the most various material proc essing operations, such as dril l ing, grinding, forging, machining, cold extrusion, etc. Material handling, responsible for automatic, computer-controlled mov ing o f material parts in various stages o f processing throughout the manu facturing plant Assembly and finishing, a sequence o f operations carried out for integra tion o f individually manufactured parts into a final product Quality control and assurance, in charge o f planning, organization, and execution o f observation and measurement steps required for individual quality inspection o f manufactured parts and products
Also in computer-based manufacturing systems a number o f auxiliary de partments and services have to be integrated by the automation concept as follows:
• Product development • Production planning • Production scheduling and control • Computer-aided design • Inventory control
Contemporary automation concepts in manufacturing are mainly based on the automation of:
• Flexible manufacturing systems (FMS)
• Computer-aided design ( C A D ) • Computer-aided manufacturing ( C A M ) • Business data processing (BDP)
Flexible manufacturing systems are themselves distributed production sys tems [9,10], consisting o f a number o f complementary and supplementary ma chines, the majority o f them being o f the CNC type, working under integrated computer control. The principal system units are (Fig. 4):
• Machinery units, containing the manufacturing equipment to which the numerically controlled machines, assembly and test facilities, etc. belong, organized in independent manufacturing cells as "islands o f automation"
• Workpiece handling units, containing the facilities-such as robots, con veyors, computer-guided vehicles and other special transport uti l i t iesthat supply in a timely way unmachined workpieces from the storage to the machine systems units and transport the machined workpieces from the machine system units to their next destination
• Tool handling units, that take care that the right tools, particularly the cutting tools, are available in the right position and in the right time available, whereby the main function is to monitor tool wear during cut ting by measuring the cutting force and power, tool temperature, vibra tions, etc.
