Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G05—CONTROLLING; REGULATING
  • G05B—CONTROL OR REGULATING SYSTEMS IN GENERAL; FUNCTIONAL ELEMENTS OF SUCH SYSTEMS; MONITORING OR TESTING ARRANGEMENTS FOR SUCH SYSTEMS OR ELEMENTS
  • G05B19/00—Programme-control systems
  • G05B19/02—Programme-control systems electric
  • G05B19/18—Numerical control [NC], i.e. automatically operating machines, in particular machine tools, e.g. in a manufacturing environment, so as to execute positioning, movement or co-ordinated operations by means of programme data in numerical form
  • G05B19/4097—Numerical control [NC], i.e. automatically operating machines, in particular machine tools, e.g. in a manufacturing environment, so as to execute positioning, movement or co-ordinated operations by means of programme data in numerical form characterised by using design data to control NC machines, e.g. CAD/CAM
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G05—CONTROLLING; REGULATING
  • G05B—CONTROL OR REGULATING SYSTEMS IN GENERAL; FUNCTIONAL ELEMENTS OF SUCH SYSTEMS; MONITORING OR TESTING ARRANGEMENTS FOR SUCH SYSTEMS OR ELEMENTS
  • G05B2219/00—Program-control systems
  • G05B2219/30—Nc systems
  • G05B2219/45—Nc applications
  • G05B2219/45143—Press-brake, bending machine
• • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
  • Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
  • Y02P—CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES IN THE PRODUCTION OR PROCESSING OF GOODS
  • Y02P90/00—Enabling technologies with a potential contribution to greenhouse gas [GHG] emissions mitigation
  • Y02P90/02—Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]

Definitions

• the present invention relates to sheet metal working data control system for integrally controlling part information and program information for sheet metal working data and collecting actual elongation value information in a host machine connected to an apparatus using sheet metal working data in network.
• Fig.1 automatic programming apparatuses 1 , 2 having CAD/CAM function and a host machine 3 which is a server are disposed in office and these high order systems are connected to machine tools (NCT/ laser, bender) on site as lower order system through LAN via a terminal 4, terminal 5 and NC unit 6.
• the host machine 3 registers various data in data base in a format of each system connected to LAN. For example, as shown in Fig.l , the host machine 3 registers sheet metal working data for the automatic programming apparatus 1 , sheet metal working data for the automatic programming apparatus 2, sheet metal working data for the NC unit 6 and the like individually.
• the host machine 3 In case of on-line sheet metal working, the host machine 3 carries out preparation for production, schedule control, process control and the like. At this time, the host machine 3 registers data of format corresponding to systems for preparation for production, schedule control, process control and the like.
• the reason why various data is registered in an individual format corresponding to each system is to convert the data type of data in the data base to a format type capable of storing only information absolutely necessary for each system. That is, the data is not registered in any format adjusted so as to match respective systems.
• an operator at office generates a development diagram Li for obtaining a processing program for NCT/laserwhile imaging a solid figure based on a three-side view drawing, using CAD function of the automatic programming apparatus 1 or automatic programming apparatus 2 and after that , allocates appropriate tools to the development diagram generated by the CAD by using CAM function. Further, it obtains a laser trajectory and transmits the processing program to the host machine 3.
• the aforementioned development diagram Li is transmitted to the host machine 3 as the CAD data with a part number, part information, material name, data and the like.
• the NC data is transmitted to the host machine 3 as the CAM data with machine name, processing preparation and the like.
• An elongation value is used to generate the development diagram Li. This elongation value is selected depending on the characteristic of a bending machine for use and particular condition of user by referring to an elongation value table.
• the host machine 3 registers received sheet metal working data hierarchically for each system as described below.
• part information (part number, part information, material name, comment, data, development diagram Li, machine name, NC data, processing preparation and the like) is transmitted, this part information is registered in data base as shown in Fig.2.
• Fig.2 the part information, file data, development diagram, machine name and the like are registered hierarchically under the part number.
• the material name, comment and the like are registered under the part information.
• NC data, processing information and the like are registered under the machine name.
• a single piece of the NC data can be registered for each machine name. That is, common NC data is located on a lower level of each machine name.
• the development diagram is not transmitted to a bending machine from the host machine 3.
• the reason why the development diagram is not transmitted is that the elongation value for bending, dies, bending order and the like cannot be determined unless a particular characteristic of a bending machine is well known.
• office sends a bending instruction sheet and a three-side view drawing to operator of site and the operator draws a bending line on a blank material by comparing the bending instruction sheet, the blank material processed by NCT and a three-side view drawing and considering an empirical elongation value and determines a bending order, bending dies and the like.
• the operator of site imagines a perspective view from a three-side view drawing.
• the operator of site computes the L value (a distance from a bending line to back gauge) and D value (punch stroke amount) from the determined bending line, bending order, bending dies and the like and inputs them into the NC unit 6.
• This L value is obtained considering the elongation value based on the three-side view drawing.
• NCT/laser by means of the automatic programming apparatus so as to obtain a new processing program.
• a solid figure is generated from the development diagram and then a perspective view is generated from this solid figure. If it is intended to register the development diagram, solid figure and perspective view with a relation to any part by connecting the automatic programming apparatus to the host machine through LAN, the development diagram, solid figure and perspective view cannot be registered with correspondence to the part because the conventional data type is so constructed in a format capable of storing only information absolutely necessary for each system.
• the conventional hierarchical structure is not capable of registering such various information about bending because the information about bending is tremendous . That is , to connect the NC unit for a bending machine to LAN so as to obtain various information about bending from this NC unit, the operator of the host machine has to register various information about bending in a data type fitting to that given NC unit.
• data is registered in data base in a format type capable of storing only information absolutely necessary for each system, even if a value for correcting an elongation value is transmitted from the NC unit , that data cannot be registered in the data base of the host machine under a relation to the elongation value information.
• the host machine is not capable of allowing the automatic programming apparatus having a function for generating graphic data to use the value for correcting the elongation value of site at real time.
• the present invention has been made to solve the above problems , and therefore , it is an object of the invention to provide a sheet metal working data control system allowing plural systems (apparatuses) connected to network for using sheet metal working data to use various kinds of data stored in data base at real time.
• a sheet metal working data control system in a host machine connected to an automatic programming apparatus for transmitting CAD data and CAM data of parts for various machine tools and connected to various NC units for controlling the various machine tools , and communicating with the automatic programming apparatus and the various NC units so as to transmit/receive a desired data, wherein the CAD data from the automatic programming apparatus is registered on the uppermost level of data base and the CAM data is registered on a level lower than the CAD data while processing control information transmitted from the various NC units is placed in parallel to the CAM data in the data base.
• a sheet metal working data control system in a host machine connected to an automatic programming apparatus for transmitting CAD data and CAM data of parts for various machine tools and connected to NC units for controlling a bending machine, and communicating with the automatic programming apparatus and the various NC units so as to transmit/receive a desired data, wherein the CAD data from the automatic programming apparatus is registered on the uppermost level of data base and the CAM data is registered on a level lower than the CAD data and when a bending CAM data for the bending machine generated according to the CAD data and the CAM data is transmitted from the NC unit, the bending CAM data is placed in parallel to the CAM data in the data base.
• the host machine when bending attribute information of the parts is transmitted from the NC unit , registers the bending attribute information in a region different from a region in which the CAD data, the CAM data and the bending CAM data are to be registered.
• the CAD data is data including a development diagram, solid figure and relating information corresponding to a part number
• the CAM data is data including a processing program based on the development diagram, processing program number, machine name, and information relating to the processing program, corresponding to the part number
• the bending CAM data is data including a processing program for a bending machine generated according to the development diagram and a perspective view of the solid figure, processing program number, a name of the bendingmachine, and information relating to the processing program, corresponding to the part number.
• bending attribute information corresponding to each bending line is attached to the development diagram and the solid figure.
• a sheet metal working data control system comprises data type decoding means for decoding the type of transmission data from the automatic programming apparatus and the NC unit; upper level registeringmeans for, when the data type decoding means determines that the transmission data is the CAD data, registering the CAD data on the uppermost level of the data base; lower level registering means for, when the data type decoding means determines that the transmission data is the CAM data, registering the CAM data on a level lower than the CAD data; and bending data registering means for, when the data type decoding means determines that the transmission data is the bending CAM data, registering the bending CAM data on the same layer as the CAM data.
• the upper level registering means registers a corresponding part information with correspondence to a part number of the CAD data and further registers a corresponding development diagram, solid figure and perspective view on a level lower than the part information.
• the lower level registeringmeans with a program number and machine name of the CAM data as a representative ID, registers a processing program and relating information under the representative ID.
• the bending data registering means with a program number and a name of the bending machine of the bending CAD data as a representative ID, registers a processing program and relating information under the representative ID.
• a sheet metal working data control system further comprises a means for, when data transmitted from a computing unit having a data format type different from a data format type of the automatic programming apparatus is received, converting the data format type of the received data to the data format type for the automatic programming apparatus and then registering the received data in the data base.
• a sheet metal working data control system further comprises a means for displaying a screen for indicating a perspective view obtained by bending the development diagram with a screen for selecting various kinds of information memorized in the data base at the same time.
• a computer-readable storage medium for storing a sheet metal working data control program comprising: a first processing for determining whether a transmission data from an automatic programming apparatus or an NC unit connected to a bending machine is CAD data from the automatic programming apparatus , CAM data from the automatic programming apparatus or bending CAD data from the NC unit; a second processing for, when it is determined that the transmission data is the CAD data by the first processing, registering the CAD data on the uppermost level of the data base; a third processing for, when it is determined that the transmission data is the CAM data by the first processing, registering the CAM data on a level lower than the CAD data; and a fourth processing for, when it is determined that the transmission data is the bending CAM data by the first processing, registering the bending CAM data on the same layer as the CAM data.
• Fig.l is a schematic structure diagram showing a conventional machine tool on-line system
• Fig.2 is an explanatory diagram for explaining a structure of a conventional database
• Fig.3 is a schematic structure diagram of a first embodiment of the present invention
• Fig.4 is a diagram showing data structure of the first embodiment of the present invention
• Fig.5 is a diagram showing data structure of the first embodiment of the present invention.
• Fig.6 is a diagram showing bending attribute information
• Fig.7 is an explanatory diagram of bending attribute information
• Fig.8 is a diagram showing a structure of storage processing function of data service function
• Fig.9 is an explanatory diagram for explaining a flow of data retrieval
• Fig.10 is a schematic structure diagram showing sheet metal working data control system of a second embodiment of the present invention
• Fig.ll is a flow chart for explaining demon processing
• Fig.12 is a schematic structure diagram for various module groups
• Fig.13 is an explanatory diagram of a display screen of data service function
• Fig.14 is an explanatory diagram of a display screen of data list
• Fig.15 is an explanatory diagram for explaining a display of a perspective view.
• Fig.16 is an explanatory diagram for explaining a NC program screen.
• Fig.3 is a schematic structure diagram of a sheet metal working control system of a first embodiment of the present invention.
• a host machine 11 shown in Fig.3 is connected to an automatic programming apparatus 10, NCT/laser machine terminal 12 and NC unit 13 for bending machine.
• respective planes constituting a solid input based on a three-side view drawing are displayed on the screen by CAD function.
• joint side information joint locations
• bending condition Ki bending direction, bending angle, joint condition, material attribute, bending type
• a plane synthesized diagram called temporary development diagram
• a solid figure is generated by bending the plane synthesized diagram according to bending condition Ki and its perspective view is displayed.
• the automatic programming apparatus communicates with the host machine 11 which is a server so as to receive an elongation value agreeing with the bending condition Kl and generates a plane synthesized diagram having an overlapping region (including a bending line) corresponding to this elongation value.
• the automatic programming apparatus 10 If an elongation value agreeing with the bending condition Ki does not exist , the automatic programming apparatus 10 generates a plane synthesized diagram using an estimated elongation value obtained by FEM (finite element method) .
• the automatic programming apparatus 10 edits interference portions on an obtained solid figure, computes dimensions and displays the result , it carries out inverse simulation processing and corrects the aforementioned plane synthesized diagram according to this processing result so as to generate a final development diagram Di by drawing a plane synthesized diagram with a continuous line.
• the CAM function appropriate tools are allocated to this development diagram Di, laser trajectory is obtained and then these processing programs (NC data) are transmitted to the host machine 11.
• the development diagram Di, solid figure and perspective view are transmitted to the host machine 11 as CAD data with part number, part information, material name, data and the like.
• the NC data is transmitted to the host machine 11 as CAM data with machine name, processing preparation information and the like.
• the host machine 11 includes data service function 15 for possessing storage, reading, control, maintenance functions and the like, basic information control portion 16, actual data control portion 17, and data base 18.
• the basic information control portion 16 controls machine information 20, dies information 21, bending information 22, material information and the like as basic information.
• the actual data control portion 17 controls solid figure data file 25, development diagram data file 26, processing data file 27, bit map file 28, part information (not shown), part file information (not shown) and the like as actual data. These files are registered so as to be integrally controlled with a format (hereinafter referred to as SDD format) matching diversified kinds of systems.
• these files are registered in a condition that the part information, file, CAM data, bending CAM data and the like are related to the part number.
• the part information is composed of material name, comment and a plurality of reserved regions and the file is composed of a development diagram, a solid figure (with bending attribute information), a perspective view and the like.
• This part number, file and the like are generally called CAD data.
• the CAM data from the automatic programming apparatus is positioned under the part information which is the CAD data and the bending CAM data is placed in parallel to this CAM data.
• the program information, processing preparation information, NC data and the like are positioned under a representative ID (for determining the kind of machine processing) composed of a pair of program number and machine name.
• the bending CAM data is also structured so that NC data (L value, D value and the like) is positioned under a representative ID composed of a pair of the program number and machine name.
• the part information in which a development diagram, solid figure and the like of each part of product G001 are classified by a part number is positioned at a upper level, and program data of each machine and bending CAM data are positioned under this part information.
• the data service function 15 carries out communication with the automatic programming apparatus 10, machine terminal 12 and NC unit 13 and retrieves data of a specified operating function from a file. Then, it carries out processing for transferring that data and collects data in a specified file.
• the data service function 15 collects estimated bending attribute information Bi from the automatic programming apparatus 10 and on-site bending attribute information Ci from the NC unit 13 as shown in Fig.6. These bending attribute information is registered in the bending information 22 controlled by the basic information control portion 16.
• Fig.6 shows a case in which while the elongation value of the estimated bending attribute information Bi is estimated to be "1.0", the elongation value of the on-site bending attribute information Ci is regarded as "1.5" and collected.
• the host machine 1 of the first embodiment collects the estimated bending attribute information Bi from the automatic programming apparatus 10 and on-site bending attribute information Ci from the machine terminal 8.
• the automatic programming apparatus 10 is capable of obtaining a plane synthesized diagram based on actual elongation values . Therefore , a final accurate development diagram Di can be obtained.
• the aforementioned bending attribute information (estimated and on-site bending attribute information) is supplied with a machine number as shown in Fig.7 and comprises elongation value information condition portion and elongation value data portion.
• the elongation value information condition portion contains bending elongation ID, material name, angle and computation/manual input flag for indicating whether estimated value or actually measured value and the like.
• the elongation value data portion contains elongation value, bending load, spring-back amount and the like.
• the storage processing function comprises data type determining means 30, upper level registering means 31, lower level registering means 32 and bending data registering means 33.
• the data type determining means 30 determines a type of the transmitted SDD format data. For example, it determines whether the CAM data from the automatic programming apparatus or bending CAM data.
• the upper-level registering means 31 registers material name (comment, plural reserved areas), files, development diagram, solid figure (with bending attribute information) , perspective view and the like in the data base 18 by suspending them under a part number of that part information.
• the lower level registering means 32 registers the CAM data under the part information which is CAD data. For this registration, the program number and machine name are a representative ID.
• the bending data registering means 33 places that bending CAM data in parallel to the CAD data. For this registration also, the program number and machine name are a representative ID. (Description of Operation)
• An operation of the host machine 11 having such a structure will be described with reference to Fig.9.
• An operator of the host machine 11 instructs to display a schedule of a schedule file on the screen as shown in Fig.9 and selects a desired schedule from this schedule screen.
• a schedule of part number "p001" is selected. If the schedule of this number pOOl is selected, the data service function 15 retrieves part information of the part number pOOl in the data base 18.
• this part information is registered hierarchically in the data base 18 as shown in Fig.4, it is possible to retrieve material name, development diagram, solid figure and the like from this part number pOOl.
• the CAM data is registered under this part information, dies or the like in a program can be retrieved when a program number of the machine is retrieved.
• the bending CAM data is placed in parallel to the CAM data, the bending CAM data of the part number POOl can be retrieved.
• the CAM data and bending CAM data are integrally controlled under SDD format by relating directly to the part number in the data base 18, if the schedule is selected, the development diagram and a solid figure of that part can be retrieved and then, bending CAM data concerning actual bending of the NC unit 13 can be retrieved easily.
• a plurality of systems using sheet metal working data can use various data of the data base at real time.
• Fig.10 is a schematic structure diagram of sheet metal working data control system of the second embodiment.
• the host machine 34 of the second embodiment comprises a demon processing portion 35, various module group 36 and common files 37.
• the demon processing portion 35 monitors write-in from the conventional automatic programming apparatus
• the host machine 34 contains various module group
• This module group 36 contains solid figure generating module, perspective view generating module and the like. Using data transferred from the demon coprocessing portion 35, a solid figure is generated and this solid figure is represented in the form of a perspective view by rendering. At this time, dimensions are indicated. Next, the demon processing will be described.
• Fig.11 is a flow chart for explaining the demon processing.
• AP format a format comprising a part name (part number is also permitted)
• a development diagram Li development diagram data for generating a processing program for NCT/laser
• NC data is transmitted from the conventional automatic programming apparatus 1.
• the development diagram data of this AP format includes attribute information such as an elongation value (estimated value) , plate thickness, inner line, outer line and the like.
• the demon processingportion 35 determines whether or not a monitoring on the common file 37 is terminated (S901).
• the demon processing portion 35 compares the last AP data region with a current AP data and determines whether or not a change exists in the data (S904). If it is determined that a change exists in data at step S904, the demon processing portion 35 stores a current AP data (S905). Then, the demon processing portion 35 expands this AP data to the SDD format and registers the expanded AP data by relating the part information directly to the part number as shown in Fig.4 and by placing the program data which is CAM data under the part information (S906).
• part information comprising part information (material name, comment, plural reserved regions ) and files (development diagram Li(development diagram region in case where no development diagram Li is transmitted) , solid figure region, perspective region) is generated.
• CAM data program information, NC data and the like are positioned under an ID representative of a program number and machine name
• its relating information are integrally controlled in terms of number or name in the data base 18. Therefore, it comes that all relating information is retrieved from the part number of the AP data and allocated. If the bending CAM data is transmitted from the NC unit 13 , it is placed in parallel to the CAM data.
• the demon processingportion 35 determines whether or not a development diagram Li exists in the SDD file format generated in the above manner (S907). If no development diagram Li exists at step S907, the processing is returned to step S901.
• the demon processing portion 35 starts the solid figure generation module so as to generate a solid figure based on the development diagram Li and register it in the solid figure region (S909). Generation of this solid figure is carried out in a following manner. That is, after the development diagram Li is expressed on three-dimensional coordinates of X, Y, Z, it is bent by affine transformation according to the bending condition Ki (bending angle, direction, bending type, material, dies and the like) and then a surface model is generated by adding a sheet thickness .
• Ki bending angle, direction, bending type, material, dies and the like
• the conventional automatic programming apparatus is also capable of carrying out transmission/reception of data with the host machine. Therefore, for example when a solid figure is generated using the AP data sent from the conventional automatic programming apparatus, it is possible to generate a solid figure after a new development diagram Di is obtained with an on-site elongation value of the bending information 22 without using the elongation value of the development diagram Li (which uses an elongation value based on the elongation value table) from the conventional automatic programming apparatus 1.
• the various modules group 36 of the host machine 34 comprises schedule control module 40, WinSIM module 41 (hereinafter referred to as simulation module), processing edition module 42, one-touch perspective view module 43, bill output module 44 and CD file module 45.
• the basic master of the data base 18 of Fig.12 includes machine information 20, dies information 21, bending information 22 and the like, and the product/part master includes solid figure data file 25, development diagram data file 26 and the like.
• the data service function 15 displays a screen constituted of retrieval data list area 51, content indication area 52, selection data list area 53, application function button area 54, execution button area 55, bill button area 56 and menu area 67 as shown in Fig.13 in multiple windows . Main parts of them will be described below.
• Fig.14 is a detailed explanation of Fig.13.
• a list of all data memorized in the data base 18 is indicated in the retrieval data list area 51 of Fig.14.
• the selection list area 53 is filled with selection data (program number, machine name, quantity and the like) in the retrieval data list area 51, various modules are activated. If a desired data column is selected from the retrieval data list area 51, a development diagram and perspective view of that data are indicated interlockingly in the content indication area 52 as shown in Fig.14.
• the indications of the perspective view and development diagram are attained by activating the solid figure generation module and development diagram generation module.
• the one-touch perspective view module by recognizing a closed loop of the SDD format development diagram as a plane, converts it to a solid figure according to the bending direction, bending angle, bending type and the like, and finally indicates a perspective view by rendering as shown in Fig.15. At this time, an interference check for the plane is carried out and that interference portions are indicated in different colors .
• a simulation module When a simulation module is activated, as shown in Fig.16, the NC program is displayed on the screen and an allocation of dies on a work for NCT based on the NC program is displayed.
• this CAD data is registered on the uppermost level of the data base and the CAM data is registered on a lower level. Then, if the host machine receives processing information from each NC unit, that processing information is registered in parallel to the CAM data.
• processing information common to various machine tools is registered in a different hierarchy from for the CAD data with correspondence to the part number. Therefore, the CAD data and processing information can be transferred to other systemusing this processing program as requiredwith a correspondence therebetween.

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• 1999
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  • 1999-06-24 AU AU43929/99A patent/AU4392999A/en not_active Abandoned
  • 1999-06-28 TW TW088110826A patent/TW458822B/zh active

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