Design and implementation of an ISO14649-compliant CNC milling machine

The STEP-NC project, which is an international IMS project researching ISO14649, was performed to develop and supplement ISO14649, which will replace the G&M code, which itself is based on ISO6983 and has been a widely used standard for machine tools' operation. There has been much interest in ISO14649 as a database, which is based on the ISO10303 STEP, and international standard for three-dimensional computer-aided design that combines computer-aided manufacture data and the numerical control (NC) command. This study examines a milling machine operated by ISO14649, which is called a STEP-NC milling machine. Instead of directly giving the tool path to CNC machines, ISO14649 just provides the information required in generating tool paths. Therefore, to make a STEP-NC machine, a tool path generator and motion controller operated by the STEP-NC code are required. A controller was developed combining the personal computer and motion control board for the personal computer. The tool path generator and all software in this system were made with Visual C++. The STEP-NC file was arranged in XML, which has the same structure and format as the original STEP-NC file and was used as an input file in order to make good use of the personal computer-based environment in this study. In addition, example 1, included in ISO14649-11 dis version, was machined to test the manufactured STEP-NC milling system.