Extraction of process parameters from a sheet metal part model

Process planning in a computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) requires integrated system for design and manufacturing activities. For sheet metal part, feature recognition and feature reasoning of a product model for process planning is an essential component of CIM environment. Research work for feature recognition and reasoning has been addressed in literature, which is limited to the geometric and topological information but actual process parameters requited for manufacturing operation is still an open issue. Our research is for extraction of process parameters from a sheet metal part model which is in STEP Format. These process parameters can be used in sheet metal manufacturing to control the operations. This paper presents extraction of process parameters for a sheet metal feature from a sheet metal part model (STEP Format). This work then formulates the feature processes in terms of extracted process parameters, material properties, sheet metal dimension and feature dimension. The actual operation in real manufacturing environment is identified as extension of the proposed work. The extraction of process parameters for sheet metal operation is demonstrated with case studies.