Research On Automatic Programming System For Injection Mould Electrode Based On Powermill

EDM is an essential mold process. As an important part of EDM, electrode has ahuge number and variety characteristics. Although the structures of electrode arerelatively simple and similar electrode has a great similarity in shape and structure,there are serious problems in CNC programming process such as extremely tediousrepetitive work, nonstandard machining process and so on. Therefore, the study ofCAPP in injection mould electrode and formulate process planning quickly andreasonably, are significant for improving the efficiency of electrode programming andminimizing the time of mould manufacturing cycle.In this paper, on the basis of analyzing the characteristics of the injection mouldelectrode structure, combined with Haier injection mould electrode machining process,the group technology, CAPP technology and CBR technology were applied toprogramming process of electrode, and developed an automated programming systemfor electrode based on PowerMILL. Specific research works were as follows:(1) Based on group technology, the electrodes were classified into the family(group), encoding rules for a18-code electrode classification and coding system havebeen proposed and interpreted respectively.(2) Analyze requirements of the system, build the overall framework based on theclient/server architecture of CAPP system of injection mould electrode, and the systemdatabase was designed.(3) The technology of CBR was studied. Nearest neighbor approach was proposedto solve similar electrode. The retrieval of CBR was conditional on the electrodeclassification and coding. According to the analysis of the basic principles of the nearestneighbor approach, the calculation method of the electrode similarity was given. Theprocess of similarity function and attribute weight calculation were focused on.(4) Using Visual Basic6.0as development tools, the secondary development ofPowerMILL were based on macros and plug-in modules methods, to create the Toolmenu, build tool management module, process management module, NC machiningmodule and post-processing module. Through electrode examples to verify the feasibility and correctness of the automatic programming system for injection mouldelectrode.