Apparatus and method for managing and distributing design and manufacturing information ...

114 Pages·2013·6.45 MB·English

US006411862B1
United States Patent
(12) (10) Patent N0.: US 6,411,862 B1
Hazama et al. (45) Date of Patent: *Jun. 25, 2002
(54) APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS
MANAGING AND DISTRIBUTING DESIGN
ATNHDR OMUAGNHUOFUATC TAU SRHIENEGT IMNEFTOARLM ATION EE1P1; 0402475 12/1990
PRODUCTION FACILITY Ep 0419013 3/1991
EP 0485766 5/1992
(75) Inventors: Kensuke Hazama, Yorba Linda; Kalev EP 0664186 7/1995
Kask, Irvine; Satoshi Sakai, Newport JP 1309727 12/1989
Coast; Anand Subbaraman, Santa Ana, JP 1309728 12/1989
an of CA (Us) JP 2-15827 1/1990
JP 2-15828 1/1990
(73) Assignee: Amada Company, Ltd., KanagaWa JP 5'216525 8/1993
(JP) JP 7121418 12/1995
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
( * ) Nonce: SubJeCt_tO any dlsclalmeri the term of thls An International Prelimiray Examination Report issued in
Pawnt 15 extended or adlusted under 35 counterpart PCTApplication No. PCT/US97/07471, on Feb.
U.S.C. 154(1)) by 0 days. 17 2000*
L' I I' d I .
This patent is subject to a terminal dis- _ 1S con_n_lue on neX page)
Claimm Primary Examtner—W1llIam Grant
Assistant Examiner—Zoila E. Cabrera
(74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Greenblum & Bernstein
(21) Appl. No.: 09/272,095 PLC
(22) Filed: Mar. 18, 1999 (57) ABSTRACT
. . An apparatus and method is provided for managing and
Related [18' Apphcatlon Data distributing design and manufacturing information through
(63) Continuation of application No. 08/690,671, ?led on Jul. 31, out a factory In Order to faclhtate the producnon of
1996 now Pat NO_ 5 886 897_ components, such as bent sheet metal components. In accor
(60) Provisional application No. 60/016,958, ?led on May 6, dance Wlth an 951)?“ of thel?esem l_nvennon> the manage‘
1996 ment and distribution of critical design and manufacturing
7 information is achieved by storing and distributing the
(51) Int. Cl. .............................................. .. G06F 19/00 desi g n and manufacturin g information associated With each
(52) US. Cl. ...................................... .. 700/182; 700/165 j()b_ By replacing the traditional paper job Set-up or Work
(58) Field of Search ............................... .. 700/182, 165, Sheet With, for example, an electronically stored job sheet
700/9648, 103404, 117, 163, 145, 83, that can be accessed instantaneously from any location in the
84; 345/964_967 factory, the present invention improves the overall ef?ciency
of the factory. In addition, through the various aspects and
(56) References Cited features of the invention, the organization and accessibility
of part information and stored eXpert knowledge is
improved.
U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS
35 Claims, 68 Drawing Sheets
4,912,644 A 3/1990 Aoyama et al. ............ .. 700/98
5,029,462 A 7/1991 Wakahara et al. ....... .. 72/3792
Micro?che Appendix Included
(List continued on neXt page.) (5 Micro?che, 406 Pages)
f-M
3o DESIGN ASSEMBLY SHIPPING
/ 32
- r
SERVER
DATABASE MODULE I6
KIB
PIINCHIIIG BENDING WELDING
US 6,411,862 B1
Page 2
US. PATENT DOCUMENTS 2D—3D: UNKEI/Solid and UNKEI/Drawing Check & Pro
jection/Reconstruction System, Sales Brochure, Tokyo
5,089,970 A 2/1992 Lee et al. ................... .. 700/96 Engineering Corp. (TEC), Tokyo, Japan (1993).
5,115,400 A 5/1992 Watanabe et al. . 700/182
5,237,647 A 8/1993 Roberts et al. .... .. 345/419 Naessens, Diederik, “Flexible Automation On Press
5,276,606 A 1/1994 MiZukami et al. 700/86 Brakes”, American Machinist, pp. 36—39 (Jun. 1994).
5,297,054 A 3/1994 KienZle et al. .... .. 700/182
Wysong Literature, The Perfect Forming Touch: New, PH
5,307,282 A 4/1994 Conradson et al. ....... .. 700/103
5,315,522 A 5/1994 Kauffman et al. ........ .. 700/165 Plus Series, DNC Press Brakes, Cat. PHP—1, Wysong &
5,396,265 A 3/1995 Ulrich et al. ...... .. 345/158 Miles Company, Greensboro, North Carolina (1993).
5,429,682 A 7/1995 Harlow, Jr. et al. 118/681
Bourne, David A., “Intelligent Manufacturing Worksta
5,434,791 A 7/1995 Koko et al. . . . . . . . . . . .. 700/97 tions”, Knowledge—Based Automation of Processes, Session
5,453,933 A 9/1995 Wright et al. ............. .. 700/191
at the 1992 ASME Winter Annual Meeting (Nov. 1992).
5,485,390 A 1/1996 LeClair et al. ............ .. 700/182
5,551,028 A 8/1996 V011 et al. .... .. 707/103 Wang, Cheng—Hua, “A Parallel Design System For Sheet
5,552,995 A 9/1996 Sebastian . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 700/97 Metal Parts”, Mechanical Engineering Report, presented to
5,587,914 A 12/1996 Conradson et al. 700/95
the Mechanical Engineering Department, Carnegie Mellon
5,828,575 A 10/1998 Sakai ............. .. 700/182
University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, pp. 1—31 (May 1992).
5,835,684 A 11/1998 Bourne et al. 700/255
5,864,482 A 1/1999 HaZama et al. 700/95 Wang et al., Cheng—Hua, “Concurrent Product/Process
5,886,897 A * 3/1999 HaZama ...... .. 700/182 Design With Multiple Representations Parts”, IEEE, No.
5,905,501 A * 5/1999 Kato .......... .. 345/420
1050—4729/93, pp. 298—304 (1993).
6,224,249 B * 5/2001 OZawa et al. ................ .. 703/1
Amada Unfold: Manual For Autocad, Table of Contents,
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
Index & pp. 1—28, U.S. Amada, Ltd., Buena Park, California
An International Written Opinion issued in counterpart PCT (Mar. 1994).
Application No. PCT/US97/07471, on Sep. 10, 1999. Amada Windows Unfold: Manual For Cadkey, Table of
Chu et al., Wesley W., Cooperative Query Answering Via Contents, pp. 1—35, & Index, U.S. Amada, Ltd., Buena Park
Type Abstraction Hierarchy, Computer Science Department California (Nov. 1995).
of Computer Science, University of California, Los Angeles,
Amada Windows Unfold: Manual For Cadkey, Table of
pp. 1—28 (Oct. 1990).
Contents & pp. 1—13, U.S. Amada, Ltd., Buena Park,
Chiang, Kuorong, Automatic Generation of Type Abstrac
California (Nov. 1995).
tion Hierarchies For Cooperative Query Answering (A
dissertation submitted as part of the requirements for the AMACOM: AP40 Literature, Version 4, Amada Co., Ltd.,
degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science), Japan (Jul. 1996).
University of California Los Angeles, pp. 1—98 (1995). AMACOM: AP60 Literature, Amada Co., Ltd., Japan (Jul.
Mortenson, Michael E., Geometric Modeling (Title Page & 1996).
Table of Contents), John Wiley & Sons, New York, (1988).
AMACOM: AP200 Literature, Amada Co., Ltd., Japan (Jul.
Foley et al., James D., The Systems Programming Series:
1996).
Fundamentals of Interactive Computer Graphics, (Title
Page & Table of Contents), Addison—Wesley Publishing Co., Bending Soft, Literature on the AMACOM AP40, No.
Reading, Massachusetts (Mar. 1983). 9112—01, Amada Co., Ltd., Japan (Publication Date
Mantyla, Martti, An Introduction To Solid Modeling (Title Unknown).
Page & Table of Contents), Computer Science Press, Inc., Papanikolopoulos, Nikolaos P., “FORS: ASystem For Flex
Rockville, Maryland (1988).
ible Design,” Conference Proceedings: 1990 IEEE Interna
Wesley et al., M.A., “Fleshing Out Projections”, IBM J. Res. tional Conference On Systems, Man, And Cybernetics, Nov.
Develop., vol. 25, No. 6, pp. 934—954 (Nov. 1981). 4—7, 1990, Los Angeles, California, pp. 724—726.
Aomura et al., Shigeru, “Creating Solid Model With
Patent Abstracts of Japan, vol. 018, No. 689 (P—1850), Dec.
Machine Drawings”, The Sixth Computational Mechanics
26, 1994).
Conference, JSME, No. 930—71, pp. 497—498, Japan (1983).
Aomura, Shigeru, “Recent Trends And Future Prospect Of “Method For Understanding Drawing Attributes For 3D
Research And Practical Use (Automatic Reconstruction of Models”, IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, vol. 37, No.
3D Solid From Drawings)”, JSME, No. 586—61, pp. 07, pp. 99—104 (Jul. 1994).
2180—2187, Japan (1995).
Tseng et al., Yuan—Jye, “Recognizing Multiple Interpreta
Open GL Reference Manual (Title Page & Table of Con tions Of Interacting Machining Features”, Computer—Aided
tents), Release 1, Open GL Architecture Review Board, Design, vol. 26, No. 9, pp. 667—688 (Sep. 1994).
Addison—Wesley Publishing Co., Reading, Massachusetts
GU et al., P., “Product Modelling Using STEP”, Comput
(Jan. 1995).
er—Aided Design, vol. 27, No. 3, pp. 163—179 (Mar. 1995).
Open GL Programming Guide (Title Page & Table of
Contents), Release 1, Open GL Architecture Review Board, Trappey et al., “A Data Representation Scheme for Sheet
Addison—Wesley Publishing Co., Reading, Massachusetts metal parts: Expressing Manufacturing Features and Toler
(Jun. 1995). ance Requirements,” Journal of Manufacturing Systems,
RenderWare, API Reference Manual (Title Page & Table of v14. N.6 pp. 393—405 (1995).
Contents), V2.0, Criterion Software Ltd., United Kingdom
(Oct. 1995). * cited by examiner
U.S. Patent Jun. 25,2002 Sheet 1 0f 68 US 6,411,862 B1
@255“ @253;
335% @255”
..G1I
2:522
205;
525:
M222:
U.S. Patent Jun. 25,2002 Sheet 2 0f 68 US 6,411,862 B1
2
)2
mI:IIIIIIa‘
G||||||||I||| _|||||||I|||||| ImQ|Ir|V_ L
_2I1N ||||| |||||||I||||||| | I|I|||
uI:_I.III_..... _.......... ... . .........
\lvu@2\2 8
5aL54_%24E__5 E _ e_a25_s 3_o :
___ "/552a3EE:
/uHa\c/_o\ _m 5f_554__52.2 _ 2 8/ /mm 0u2:5E2:::225::;22 : __
/m/unu2s2:22s:2:
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII_II IIIIILIII N W
a

U.S. Patent
Jun. 25, 2002 Sheet 6 0f 68 US 6,411,862 B1
ACCESS PART
MODEL/TOPOLOGY
DATA
I S.IO2
PERFORM FEATURE
EXTRACTION
, 3.104
COMPARE FEATURE
EXTRACTION DATA WITH
TOPOLOGY LIBRARY
I S.IO6
DETERMINE BASIC
SHAPES/ FEATURES IN
PART
I mos
PERFORM FEATURE
RELATION OPERATION
FIG. 5A
U.S. Patent
Jun. 25, 2002 Sheet 7 0f 68 US 6,411,862 B1
S.IIO
IDENTIFY DATABASE
SEARCH KEYS
V
PERFORM
COOPERATIVE SEARCH
WITH SEARCH KEYS
EXECUTE SELECTED
PARTS SEARCH
, sm
CALCULATE
SIMILARITY INDEX
‘ we
OUTPUT SIMILAR
PARTS FROM
DATABASE
FIG. 55
U.S. Patent Jun. 25,2002 Sheet 8 0f 68 US 6,411,862 B1
@@
FIG. 6A FIG. 6B