Process planning for mold and die machining is heavily dependent on the machining knowledge of the machine shop as well as available machine tools and cutters. Though it is a well known concept that computer-automated process planning (CAPP) can bridge the gap between CAD and CAM, CAPP for mold and die machining is not often addressed both in the literature and in the commercially available software.
In this dissertation, we develop a CAPP system for freeform die-cavity machining. A C-space based CAPP algorithm, which is an extension of the hierarchical CAPP and a C-space based tool path filtering algorithm including gouge filtering, collision filtering and cutting-force filtering are proposed. A prototype CAPP system with these algorithms is implemented and applied to actual die-cavity machining examples by a domestic mold and die shop.
Even though the initial prototype system generates valid process plans for all of nine examples, the two following issues need to be considered to be applicable to more general situations: 1) a data model such as ISO 14649 (STEP-NC) is required to interface between CAPP system and CAM system, 2) the CAPP system should be configurable to the process knowledge and the preferred tool paths generation strategy of the user.
