Virtual manufacturing: prediction of work piece geometric quality by considering machine and set-up accuracy

In the context of concurrent engineering, the design of the parts, the production planning and the manufacturing facility must be considered simultaneously. The design and development cycle can thus be reduced as manufacturing constraints are taken into account as early as possible. Thus, the design phase takes into account the manufacturing constraints as the customer requirements; more of these constraints must not restrict the creativity of design. Also to facilitate the choice of the most suitable system for a specific process, Virtual Manufacturing is supplemented with developments of numerical computations [Altintas, Y., et al. 2005. Virtual machine tool. Annals of the CIRP, 54 (2), 651–674, Bianchi, G., et al., 1996. Toward virtual engineering in machine tool design. Annals of the CIRP, 45 (1), 381–386] in order to compare, at low cost, several solutions developed with several hypotheses without manufacturing of prototypes. In this context, the authors want to predict the work piece geometry more accurately by considering machine defects and work piece set-up through the use of process simulation. A particular case study based on a three-axis milling machine will be used here to illustrate the authors' point of view. This study focuses on the following geometric defects: machine geometric errors, work piece positioning errors due to fixture system and part accuracy.