A new web based STEP-NC converter (W-STC) for simulation & NC machining

Abstract

STEP-NC (ISO14649) is an enhancement to STEP (ISO 10303) for operating NC machines upon which many researchers developed many systems and platforms. Unlike traditional manufacturing processes, STEP-NC compliant manufacturing enables homogeneity & interoperability across various stages. Many researchers developed various converter tools which convert STEP-NC file into other formats to enable this homogeneity & interoperability. The present work reviewed many of these existing converters for their conversion capabilities. These converters mainly aim to convert STEP-NC files into either 'G-code' (for CNC operations) (or) to 'XML' (for exchange of information) (or) to any other type of controller program. However, minimal efforts were made to convert the STEP-NC file into any simulation file formats for CAM needs. So, the present work proposed and developed a new web-based converter meeting the needs of both CAM & CNC. Developed ‘Web based STEP-NC Converter (W-STC)’ works as a web application and can serve as a cloud manufacturing service for global users via internet. As a result, cloud users can import STEP-NC file as input, verify working steps, key entities that influence the tool path, and generate ‘.jscad’, ‘.nc’ files against each working step. The developed converter works for all the five milling operations mentioned in ‘ISO 14649, Part 11’. A case study with the ‘plane finish milling’ operation is considered in the present paper to describe the working of this new ‘W-STC’ as a CMfg service.