Patent ID: 6256547
Filing Date: 2001-07-03
Classification: G05B

Abstract:
A process for the automatic generation of a sequence of controls for a metal sheets bending machine, comprising the steps of:providing for a first plurality of configuration files of a respective plurality of bending machines, each file containing information on the configuration of the respective bending machine;providing for a second plurality of files each referring to a respective bending machine and constituting a library of controls for the bending machine;providing for a first database of geometrical shapes of mechanical organs, containing a geometrical representation of mechanical organs of the bending machines;providing for a second database containing information on the behavior of a plurality of materials when these are submitted to bending, said process comprising the following stages;a geometrical design stage of a panel in a tridimensional CAD designing environment in which a geometrical design of a panel is defined;a configuration stage for the selection of a particular bending machine within said plurality of bending machines, in such a way as to select a first file among said first plurality of files, and a second file among said second plurality of files;a stage of acquisition of the geometrical design of the panel for the individuation of the bends provided in said geometrical design of the panel;a stage of preliminary verification of the geometrical design of the panel for the verification of the manufacturability of the panel by means of the selected bending machine;a processing stage in which, by associating the first file with the first database, a virtual tridimensional representation of the selected bending machine is obtained and said virtual representation of the bending machine is associated with said second file and with said second database, in order to obtain a tridimensional simulation of the bending process of a metal sheet, said simulation determining the sequence of bending operations that the bending machine must execute to obtain the designed panel;a stage of generation of the sequence of controls for the bending machine starting from the sequence of the bending operations, said sequence of controls allowing the bending machine to execute said sequence of bending operations;wherein each configuration file of a bending machine comprises a first section containing identification data of the type of bending machine, and a plurality of second sections, each associated to a respective mechanical organ of the bending machine, in which the information of the dimensions, the mutual position and the possibility of movement of the mechanical organ are memorized;wherein said plurality of second sections comprises second sections associated with the optional mechanical organs of the bending machine that can be installed on the bending machine as an alternative to each other, said second sections containing information on the effective installation of the relative mechanical organ of the bending machine;wherein said preliminary verification stage involves an interaction with said first file for the verification of the manufacturability of the designed panel by means of the selected bending machine with the mechanical organs actually being installed, and in case such verification of the manufacturability gives negative results, a verification of the manufacturability of the panel by substituting one or more mechanical organs of the bending machine with optional mechanical organs specified in said first file;wherein said preliminary verification stage involves an interaction with the tridimensional CAD design environment in order to correct the geometrical design of the panel in case the verification of the manufacturability of the panel gives negative result; andwherein said second database comprises a plurality of sections each one referring to a particular material, each section of the second database comprising a plurality of subsections each one referring to a particular elementary bend and comprising numerical information on the stretching of the metal sheet during the bending process, on the obtainable bending radius and on the positioning of the organs of the bending machine in order to obtain such elementary bend.