Development of a holistic guidance system for the NC process chain for benchmarking machining operations

Nowadays, there are existing significant deficiencies in the information flow along the NC (numerical control) process chain. The deficiencies are solved insufficiently by introducing CAD/CAM systems and feature-oriented specification languages. In contrast to that the application of new production technologies (like laser ablation) requires an intensive information exchange. The presented approach is an added value to the given CAD/CAM systems and planning data bases. The holistic guidance system enables the access of certain planning information along the whole NC process chain. Thus the operator can benchmark mathematically defined machining processes with universal criteria. As consequence the process planer can re-use the benchmark results to optimize the choice of machining parameter in order to create new NC programmes.