Title: Intelligent process planning methods for the manufacturing of moulds

Authors: Dirk Biermann, Andreas Zabel, Thomas Michelitsch, Petra Kersting

Addresses: Institute of Machining Technology (ISF), Technische Universitat 44227 Dortmund, Germany. ' Institute of Machining Technology (ISF), Germany. ' Institute of Machining Technology (ISF), Germany. ' Institute of Machining Technology (ISF), Germany

Abstract: The layout of temperature control systems for moulds is decisive for the performance and stability of the production process. A design and optimisation approach for temperature control systems is introduced, coping with geometric constraints and complex thermal dependencies and allowing a significant reduction of manufacturing costs. Five-axis milling processes are increasingly used for the production of moulds in order to achieve high surface qualities and low manufacturing times. The CAM-programming required for the milling of free-formed surfaces in this field is complex and error-prone. An approach is shown, which automatically generates five-axis NC-paths from existing error-free three-axis paths.

Keywords: mould temperature control; five-axis milling; multi-objective optimisation; evolutionary algorithms; mouldmaking; manufacturing costs; CAM; freeform surfaces; NC path generation; intelligent process planning.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCAT.2011.038551

International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology, 2011 Vol.40 No.1/2, pp.64 - 70

Published online: 10 Feb 2011 *

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