FLEXIBLE PROCESS PLANNING SYSTEM CONSIDERING DESIGNERS ’ INTENTIONS AND MANUFACTURING CONDITIONS

This paper describes a flexible process planning system considering designers ’ intentions and manufacturing conditions in production process. The mechanisms of this system are achieved by the following methods: recomposition of minimum convex polyhedrons decomposed from total removal volume into feasible manufacturing features sets, selection of desirable manufacturing feature sets based on technological design requirements with respect to designers ’ intention, determination of desirable machining sequences, and evaluation of the efficiency of each candidate of process plans. This system can generate multiple process plans according to manufacturing conditions by changing desirable manufacturing feature sets or their machining sequence. Keywords: process planning, flexibility, manufacturing feature, function, designers ’ intentio