A Hybrid Intelligent System for Stamping Process Planning in Progressive Die Design.pdfVIP

Abstract — This paper presents an intelligent, hybrid system for stamping process planning in progressive die design. The system combines the flexibility of blackboard architecture with case-based reasoning. The hybrid system has the advantage that it can use past knowledge and experience for case-based reasoning when it exists, and other reasoning approaches when it doesn’t exist. A prototype system has been implemented in CLIPS and interfaced with Solid Edge CAD system. An example is included to demonstrate the approach. Index Terms — Blackboard architecture; Graph-based; Hybrid intelligent systems; Knowledge-based; Progressive die design; Stamping process planning I. INTRODUCTION Progressive dies for producing sheet metal parts in mass production have been widely applied in various industries such as aerospace, electronics, machine tools, automobiles, and refrigeration. These dies can perform piercing, notching, cut-off, blanking, lancing, bending, shaving, drawing, embossing, coining, trimming, and other miscellaneous forming operations at a single setup. Hence a progressive die is generally very complex. Stamping process planning and die structure design are difficult and demanding tasks. Stamping process planning starts with an unfolding of a model of stamped metal part to produce a flat pattern, followed by nesting the pattern to produce a blank layout. Next, stamping operations are planned and operations are assigned to die stations. The resulting plan is typically represented as a strip layout, which guides the subsequent die structure design. The productivity, accuracy, cost, and quality of a progressive die mainly depends on the strip layout, and hence a stamping process. However, stamping process planning still remains more of an art rather than a science. Historically, this activity is mainly carried out manually, based on designers’ trial-and-error experience, skill and knowle