CAD/CAM solutions for STEP-compliant CNC manufacture

The ability to generate an NC tool path is now common place in CAD/CAM systems, but the technology used for programming and control of NC machines is still based on 1950’s standards. Today under the IMS project called STEP-NC in Europe and Asia, and Super Model in USA, industrialists and academics are collaborating to deliver a new data model as an ISO 14649 standard for CNC machines. This standard will enable software vendors to revolutionise the programming of these machines. This paper provides a futuristic view of how this standard could be used in manufacturing and highlights a number of possible generic frameworks for how CAD/CAM systems may evolve using the ISO 14649 standard. Finally, the paper proposes a prototype STEP compliant CAD/CAM system based on one of these frameworks using the new ISO 14649 Standard for milling components.