Development of Integrated Product Information Model Using STEP

STEP 을 이용한 통합제품정보모델(IPIM) 개발

This research proposes an Integrated Product Information Model (IPIM) using STEP (Standard for the Exchange of product model data) for Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) of Concurrent Engineering (CE). IPIM is based on Geometry and Topology (STEP Part 42), Form Feature (STEP Part 48), and Tolerance (STEP Part 48) for representing the integrated information of mechanical parts. For the IPIM, 1) new entities are developed for integration of existing entities, and 2) the existing entities are restructured and modified for a special application protocol. In CIM or CE, the advantages of using IPIM having integrated form of geometry, feature and tolerance are 1) integration of product design, process design and manufacturing sequentially or concurrently. 2) keep the product data consistency, modified by different domain, and 3) automatic data exchange between different application software and different hardware. The prototype system is composed of CAD, Data Probe, DBMS and SDAI (Standard Data Access Interface), and the generated STEP data is stored in a step file of DBMS for other applications.