Toward interoperable CNC manufacturing

Most manufacturing enterprises now employ compute numerical control (CNC) technology in their production chain. Improving the performance and flexibility of the computer aided design (CAD)/computer aided manufacturing (CAM)/CNC chain can therefore, have a significant effect on the competitiveness of such enterprises. Whereas hardware capabilities of these systems have increased proactively over the last few decades, the software components have been updated reactively to support the enhancements found on the newer generation of CNC machines. This passive approach has led to severe incompatibilities between the various CAD/CAM/CNC solutions. This paper presents the impediments and issues arising from such incompatibilities and proposes a new framework to overcome these barriers in achieving interoperability in the CAD/CAM/CNC chain. In the suggested framework different components of the CAD/CAM/CNC chain can exchange information with one another regardless of their native standards. The different elements comprising the framework are demonstrated by utilizing a test component in a dynamic manufacturing scenario.