Research on Flexible Transfer Line Schematic Design Using Hierarchical Process Planning

Flexible transfer line(FTL)is now widely used in ma ny manufacturing domains to realize efficiently,high quantity and economic prod uction.These manufacturing domains include automobile,tractor,internal-combu stion engine,and so on.In today’s competitive business environment,it is vit ally important for machine tool manufacturers to design flexible transfer line m ore effectively and efficiently according to a wider variety of customer demand s.This paper proposes an approach to a bidding-based flexible transfer line sc hematic design system.By analyzing manual FTL design process,the architecture o f flexible transfer line schematic design system(FTLSDS)is established.The syst em consists:of four processes:part feature modeling,process planning,FTL fac i lity layout and FTL evaluation. For FTL schematic design.a five-level proces s planning strategy named hierarchical process planning method is proposed.This method includes selection of manufacturing feature machining operation;part se t-up planning,feature sequencing,operation sequencing and process plan genera ting.The major decision relies on setup planning.According to the proceeding o f the hierarchical process planning,the structure of reasoning is proposed base d on blackboard.Under this paradigm,a cooperative effort between a hybrid coll ection of knowledge sources is possible.Total reasoning task can be divided int o some subtasks,and recursive-reasoning system is formed.It is convenient for process planning with step-by-step solution.Meanwhile,the blackboard is use d as the global data exchange area during all reasoning process.By using modula r technology,special purpose machine tools can be designed more efficiently and rapidly.The framework of machine modular design system to support machine requ irement design for FTL is established.By synthesizing the FTL evaluation criter ia.five evaluation criteria of flexible transfer 1ine schematic design are take n into account.An exampie is supplied to demonstrate and verify the validity an d feasibility of flexible transfer line schematic design approach.

Research on Rapid Response Schematic Design for Flexible Transfer Line CAPP-Based

To meet the market requirements for Flexible Transf er Line (FTL), which consists of modular NC machining tools of high quality and co st saving, the methodologies and technologies of client-oriented FTL rapid resp onse schematic design CAPP-based, one of the key techniques, are presented in t his paper. In order to achieve this purpose, an integrated system for integrated design of CAD/CAPP/FTL with box-type parts is realized. In this paper, firstly the theory of the conceptual design of FTL based on CAPP is established and the software architecture is developed. The global-domain pr oduct model is put forward to meet with data representation. After the manufactu ring feature is analyzed and decomposed for machining operations, the feature-b ased part unified data model object-oriented is built. Secondly the knowledge- based CAPP system data model is established. The process planning unit model is formed by work element (WE), which is tool-cell based function abstraction meth od, and has unified layers with respect to designing and manufacturing. With WEs through dynamic response and simultaneous structure in process planning, the pr inciple solution for CAPP function system can be implemented. Lastly the mapping from process domain to module design domain is built. The unidirectional select ion process based on fuzzy matching technology is easily dealt with computer. Th e algorithm of decision with fuzzy synthetic evaluation method and technology is applied to estimate the feasibility of the results in local working procedure o f modular NC machine tools and make decision of designs in overall FTL, which co nsists of many different factors. The example shows that the rapid response desi gn in bidding-based FTL scheme design is realized.

CONCURRENT PRODUCTION ENGINEERING SYSTEM FOR BUFFER SIZE AND FLEXIBLE TRANSFER LINE LAYOUT DESIGN

In this paper we propose a COncurrent Production Engineering System （COPES） for the flexible transfer line （FTL） layout design in a restricted area. COPES first determines the buffer size in front of the bay of each machine tool in the FTL and then initializes a computer aided design （CAD） system to draw the FTL in a restricted area. We develop a set of modules systems which have been integrated into a single framework, in accordance with the practice of concurrent engineering. Concurrent engineering involves the cooperation of these activities. It＇s expected that the developed COPES can improve the cooperation between production engineers＇ and the plant designer. This can be done by enabling the production engineers＇ to make better decision regarding FTL buffer size.

Approximate Solution to the Scheduling of Flexible Transfer Lines

This paper models the scheduling of one type of flexible transfer line as an integer programming problem.Since the integer program falls within the NP class of problems, then its complexity increases exponentially as theproblem size increases, making the problem intractable even for a medium size system. An approximate algorithm,whose complexity only increases algebraically with the problem size, is presented to obtain suboptimal solutions ofscheduling problems. Numerical experiments indicate that the suboptimal solution is near to the optimal solution inthe general case where the neighboring points are dense around the optimal solution in the feasible ration of the integer program.