CAPP for Casting and Welding
Process Planning is an important activity in manufacturing as it integrates Design and Manufacturing functions to evolve the strategy for manufacture of components. Process planning primarily involves determining process steps, selecting processing units (equipments) and process parameters and preparing sequence of instructions to manufacture parts economically. Process planning, thus, dictates cost, quality and productivity in a manufacturing enterprise.
Process Planning is traditionally done by human experts who have knowledge and expertise accumulated over years of experience. Manual process planning however, tends to be slow, subjective and non optimal. During the past two decades, several Computer Aided Process Planning (CAPP) systems have been developed and implemented in industries worldwide [Wang and Li, 1991]. It has been reported that compared to manual process planning, the CAPP systems offer significant benefits such as the reduction of manufacturing cost up to 30% and the manufacturing time up to 40%, depending upon the part/process domain. Much of the work on CAPP has however, been limited to the machining processes like Milling and Turning [Patil and Pande, 2002].
In this Unit, CAPP for casting and welding processes will be discussed.
Objectives
After studying this unit, you will be able to understand
- The need and objectives for developing a CAPP system for Casting and Welding,
- Modular architecture of Variant and Knowledge based CAPP systems,
- Working of typical CAPP systems for casting and welding with examples, and
- Data base and its functional layers in a CAPP system.