Martin Hardwick

Sharing manufacturing information in virtual enterprises

ecent advances in communications technology make it possible for manufacturers to transmit data to each other in fractions of a second. However, if these corporations do not use the same software tools, understanding of the data can be delayed for weeks or months while employees purchase and learn to use new tools. This article describes ongoing research into an information infrastructure that seeks to use standards (formal and de facto) to reduce the problems that occur when manufacturers want to use different tools to process each other’s data. Communicating information between different software tools is a problem common to many application domains. For example, many researchers who have collaborated on research projects are familiar with arguments over which word processor to use for a particular project. In manufacturing, the multifaceted nature of design information makes communications particularly difficult. A mechanical design may contain geometric, tolerance, material, process control, and many other kinds of information. An information infrastructure is needed to allow manufacturing applications to communicate efficiently. The infrastructure should allow engineers to use familiar applications whenever possible. A successful infrastructure will reduce the time to market for new products while letting multiple organizations apply their specialties to product development. Manufacturing has a long history of reducing communications problems through standards. Some of the most significant advances in the industrial revolution occurred when standards were established. For example, drafting standards for drawings represented a significant contribution in the 18th and early 19th centuries. In the modern era, electronic communications are more important every year. Standards are needed so manufacturers can communicate efficiently through the Internet. The required standards are becoming increasingly complex as the range of information the industry wants to communicate becomes wider. Demand for these standards is increased by the desire to allow corporations to communicate in virtual enterprises.

The industrial virtual enterprise

works allow companies to collaborate electronically. Products that might not be feasible for companies to produce individually become feasible when the same companies share data and technology, an arrangement we call an industrial virtual enterprise. An industrial virtual enterprise is a temporary consortium of independent member companies coming together to quickly exploit fast-changing worldwide product manufacturing opportunities. Industrial virtual enterprises assemble themselves based on cost-effectiveness and product uniqueness without regard for organization sizes, geographic locations, computing environments, technologies deployed, or processes implemented. Virtual enterprise companies share costs, skills, and core competencies that collectively enable them to access global markets with world-class solutions their members could not deliver individually.

Migrating from IGES to STEP: one to one translation of IGES drawing to STEP drafting data

Abstract This paper focuses on a procedure for converting product design data from an Initial Graphic Exchange Specification (IGES) format into Standard for the Exchange of Product Model Data (STEP) format. IGES is used for representing design and topology information in a platform independent format. The failure of the IGES standard to provide information other than drawing and solid modeling has led to the emergence of a new international standard for product model data exchange (ISO 10303) called STEP. STEP is designed to support a product through its entire life cycle. The STEP standard consists of a set of application protocols. An application protocol is specific to a particular engineering domain. In this case, STEP application protocol 202 is used because it defines the constructs necessary to represent the associative draughting information described by IGES. The translator parses the IGES file and converts it into the corresponding STEP (AP202) format. To test the conformance of the generated STEP file we have written code to enable visualization of an Application Protocol 202 (AP202) STEP file. The visualization uses the Open Inventor Toolkit available for the Silicon Graphics platform. The visualizer reads the STEP (AP202) file and converts the geometry and related annotations into the corresponding Inventor specific format. The file can then be viewed using the default Inventor viewer.

Data protocols for the industrial virtual enterprise

High performance computer networks allow companies to share data and technology electronically and thus collaborate in virtual enterprises. One barrier to such collaboration is the lack of interoperability among the application systems of different companies-the data produced by the systems at one company cannot be read by those at another. The National Industrial Information Infrastructure Protocols (NIIP) Consortium was formed to address this problem. The article describes three layered protocols being developed by the NIIP data protocol team.

The ROSE data manager: using object technology to support interactive engineering applications

The relational object system for engineering (ROSE) is an experimental database system for interactive engineering applications. The ROSE system and the way it uses object technology are described. The system has an open architecture which allows new tools to be added easily. Several tools are described, including an inheritance manager, version control system, and user interface manager. These tools enhance the ROSE system and broaden its application to other types of data-management problems. >

A traceability information model for CNC manufacturing

This paper proposes an information model for tracing CNC manufacturing operations. The objective of the model is to assure that traceability data is comprehensive and available for every CNC machined product, independent of the relationship between the subcontractor and the contractor. The prominent feature of the model is a link between CNC report data for a product instance, the CAD design and the CAM data. This link enables users to browse the traceability data and understand the relationships between the manufacturing process, the CAD design and the CAM data. The link is independent of the systems used to build the CAD and CAM data, and allows the users to be sure the manufactured product contains the required characteristics. Then if a product instance fails, this linkage will make possible to analyze the trace data and identify any exceptions or unusual conditions in the manufacturing process.

Lessons learned implementing STEP-NC AP-238

STEP-NC AP-238 is an integrated version of the STEP-NC ISO 14649 standard that enables more data sharing with the other STEP standards for CAD, CAM and CAE applications. This paper describes how STEP-NC AP-238 is being tested for deployment in the United States of America. The tests focused on showing that STEP-NC AP-238 allows multiple CAM systems to send five-axis tool path data to multiple CNC machines without any post-processing. The paper also describes the results of previous work performed on a feature-based implementation of STEP-NC, and explains why US industry has had difficulty in adopting a feature-based implementation as its initial deployment method.

Using views for product data exchange

Proprietary data structures complicate data sharing by making it difficult to save a product model from one software tool and load it directly into another tool. Engineers may want, for example, to verify with an analysis tool that all design constraints have been met or to prepare a design for manufacturing. In such cases, software developers must find a means of moving the product model from the proprietary data structures of a CAD system to those of the analysis system and the manufacturing system, with minimal loss of information. A database view, used in conjunction with data exchange standards, can facilitate the sharing of product model data between software tools in design and manufacturing computing environments.

Why ROSE is fast: Five optimizations in the design of an experimental database system for CAD/CAM applications

ROSE is an experimental database system for CAD/CAM applications that organizes a database into entries and relationships. The data model of ROSE is an extension of the relational model and the data manipulation language is an extension of the relational algebra. Internally, ROSE is organized so that it can use operating system services to implement database system services. In this paper we describe five optimizations that have helped to make ROSE a fast database system for CAD/CAM.

Lessons learned developing protocols for the industrial virtual enterprise

Abstract The protocols selected and developed by the NIIIP Consortium have been validated in three end-of-cycle demonstrations. In each cycle, a team with expertise in technical product data, object modeling, workflow management, security, and knowledge representation came together and demonstrated how technical barriers to the dynamic creation, operation and dissolution of “virtual enterprises” are overcome by the NIII protocols. This paper describes the protocols that were selected and developed by the product data team and makes predictions about how they will affect the future development and deployment of standard product data.