A Normalized Product Structure Model for Manufacturing

In the field of manufacturing a great number of industrial software tools integrate a cutting tool modeling. For some cases the cutting tool is considered as a resource for the various functions of the company. For other experts, it is for supplying the cutting parameters using data bases or experimental and numerical methods. The concept of Tool Material Couple (TMC) is one of these methods. To improve the performance of manufacturing systems, one has to facilitate collaborative work by developing tools for the concurrent engineering. The presented study is situated in this frame and proposes a normalized data model. This generic model based on the product structure model of the STEP standard uses the TMC concept to test its validity as consensual definition of the cutting tools and the cutting parameters. We also demonstrate that improvements of the concept TMC are necessary to consider the new cutting technologies, such as Hard Turning.