STEP-NC based machining sequencing using Genetic Algorithm

To realize true integration between design and manufacturing via sharing product information among CAD/CAM/CNC chain, a new and comprehensive data model for NC programming formalized as in ISO14649 has been published by the International Organization of Standardization. ISO 14649, which is usually named STEP-NC, describes an interface between CAM and CNC to support a direct use of computer-generated product data based on the STEP standards. In this paper, we propose an efficient heuristic to solve the problem of machining sequence by extracting the information from the given STEP-NC file in order to optimize the process plan of the part. The proposed heuristic is a Genetic Algorithm (GA) with a special chromosome structure and a special coding scheme is proposed in the algorithmic design. An example with the proposed algorithm indicates that it is practical and easy to use.