[step-manufacturing] Minutes of Fifteenth conference call

[Martin Hardwick]

Attendees
---------------
Martin Hardwick, STEP Tools
David Loffredo, STEP Tools
Mikael Hedlind, KTH
Alain Brail, AlBavis
Fred Proctor, NIST
Chris Pfeifer, CCAT
David Odendahl, Boeing
Aydin Nassehi, University of Bath
Ian Stroud, EPFL

Apologies for Absense
--------------------------------
Larry Maggiano, Mitutoyo
Sid Venkatesh, Boeing
Leon Xu, Boeing
Bengt Olsson, Sandvik

CCAT, U.Bath, NIST, KTH and Al's job shop are preparing to machine 
the part. Micro Encoder, Inc. is preparing to measure the part.

There was an extensive discussion on tooling. The inch tools defined 
for the part are difficult to obtain outside the USA. Therefore, the 
standard and its software tools need to allow the cutting tools to be 
changed. Two methods were proposed for changing the tooling. The 
first method would use software on the CNC to adjust the tool paths 
for the new size tools. This method would require the software to 
check for gouging in case the new tools are too big, and for 
undercuts in case the new tooling are too small. The software should 
be able to use the tolerances defined for the part to help make these 
decisions.

The second method is to read the data into a CAM system and have it 
generate new tool paths for the new tooling. In this case the volume 
to be removed by the operation needs to be defined for the CAM 
system.  Both methods require further software and perhaps some 
standards development before they can be used in practice. We may 
want to make enabling, and showing them the target of the next demonstration.

In the mean time and for this demonstration Aydin will send a list of 
metric tools to David O. so that he can generate new tool paths and 
make a new AP-238 file for those that need to use metric tooling.

The measurement demonstration was discussed after the telcon. The 
preparation is proceeding well. There will probably be two 
demonstrations. The first will use optical scanning and the second 
will use a touch probe.

There was a discussion of the results of the workshop on tool 
assembly in ISO 13399. From the AP-238 perspective the goal is to 
allow a fully assembled tool to be delivered from an ISO 13399 
database to a STEP-NC control so that the machining process can be 
checked and optimized using the actual parameters of the tool. The 
slides showed how a tool is assembled using assembly points and how 
the tool length is adjusted using a clamping length. The gage line of 
the tool usage is then matched to the origin of the tool assembly and 
the tool end placement is matched to the coordinates of the tool cutting item.

A multi-function tool may have multiple cutting items. In this case 
the function/cutting item that is to be used for this 
workingstep/usage needs to be selected. The proposal is for this to 
be done by matching a label in the tool_usage entity (its_function) 
with a label on the cutting item. There was some concern about this 
matching because of the potential for spelling errors. If it was 
possible to enumerate the values that could be used for the labels 
that would be better. A mitigating factor is that the ISO 13399 tool 
vendors will probably pick sensible names for the cutting item labels.

The next conference call will be held on Wednesday May 6th which is 
one week earlier than usual.

If you have not done so please register for the meeting using the forms at:
http://www.steptools.com/library/stepnc/2009_renton/


Action items
------------------
1.   NIST, Bath, KTH and CCAT to machine the part
2.   Bath to send a list of metric tooling to Boeing
3.   Boeing to make an AP-238 data set for the Moldy part for metric tooling.