Research On Key Technologies Of Collaborative Process Planning System For Network-based Manufacturing

Network-based Manufacturing (NM) is one of the main development trends of modern manufacturing industry. Computer Aided Process Planning (CAPP) is serving as the important NM-enable technology. Its characteristics of network and collaboration are the key factors of successful implementation of CAPP in NM. Some key technologies of collaborative process planning for Network-based Manufacturing (NM-COCAPP) are studied. Firstly, the demands of NM-COCAPP are analyzed. Then a framework of NM-COCAPP that consists of browser, application server and database server is built. Some fundamental technologies involved are introduced. Then the technology of collaboration in NM-COCAPP is researched. The characteristics of collaborative process planning are analyzed. The conception and connotation of collaborative process planning are proposed. Then a collaborative design model for process planning in NM is built. Some issues involved, such as process planning task solving, management and control of process planning flow, are discussed in detail. The modeling and integration of manufacturing resource are studied. A manufacturing resource model based on XML is presented. Thirdly, process information modeling and integration of NM-COCAPP is discussed. A process information model based on PSL is proposed and its mapping to XML is presented. A framework of process plan information integration based on CORBA and XML is built for the settlement of information integration among dynamic alliance. A prototype of NM-COCAPP based on research is under development. The function structure and working flow are designed. Then some examples are given to illustrate some functions of the system. Finally a conclusion is drawn and further research is pointed out.