Interoperability of product and manufacturing information (PMI) using ontology

Abstract

Effective usage of CAD (Computer Aided Design) and CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing) software are one of the most crucial factors of manufacturing sector & academia nowadays. The basic role of CAD is to precisely define the geometry of a design, as it is critical to all the subsequent activities in the product cycle. Primary purpose of CAM is to create a faster production process and components and tooling with more precise dimensions and material consistency. CAD and CAM both software systems can be regarded as a mutually dependable software systems. Efficient Usage of CAM for tool path & NC code generation without perfect modeling in CAD is unthinkable. The communication among different CAD systems usually involves a huge amount of data, different formats, and proprietary platforms. Inefficient communication between CAD/CAD, CAD/CAM & CAD/Analysis systems leads to information loss, which will lead to design & fabrication errors. Therefore a bridge is needed to be made between the CAD/CAD, CAD/CAM & CAD/Analysis systems so that easily and efficiently models can be transported from the CAD system to another system. To carry out successful manufacturing operation in CAM software, not only parametric information & machining information but also non-parametric information is needed to be transported. To improve and accelerate the design, manufacturing and inspection processes, integration of drawing annotations directly onto a 3D model is crucial, which is known as, Product & manufacturing information (PMI). The core information represented by PMI is geometric dimensioning and tolerance (GD&T), notes, surface texture symbols, welding symbols, and other annotation to 3D models. PMI not only describes - technical requirements like tolerance, dimensions, but also integrates non-technical information like annotations, materials - both of which influence manufacturing time, quality, and cost and design intent. PMI also plays a key role in Computer Aided Inspection ...