Automated Screw-pin adjustment for reconfigurable moulding machine

Yan Wang (1) , Zhijian Wang (1) , N N Z Gindy (2) , Renzhong Tang (3) , Xinjian Gu (3)

1 School of Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing Engineering
2 School of Mech, Materials & Man Eng'g
3 College of Mechanic and energy engineering

To stay competitive, the moulding industry must possess manufacturing systems that are responsive to rapid market changes. Reconfigurable moulding is therefore much in demand. After the development of a vacuum forming machine, in which the pins are configured to a near-net shape and machined to final shape with minimal material removal, this paper discusses in detail the support software development that enables the automatic adjustment of discrete-pins to represent different component geometry. In this paper, the methodology is firstly explained, and the implementation of the system within the software is then demonstrated. The software system includes three parts: (1) component discretization, (2) Discrete-pin construction, adjustment, and G code generation (SCAG) and (3) Display and verification. Vacuum forming of a car model is used as case study.

Mots clés: Physical Sciences

Yan Wang, Zhijian Wang, N N Z Gindy, Renzhong Tang, Xinjian Gu. Automated Screw-pin adjustment for reconfigurable moulding machine. International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing, 2010, 23 (03), pp.229-236. ⟨10.1080/09511920903527853⟩. ⟨hal-00567236⟩