A Fuzzy Analysis Approach to Part Family Formation in Cellular Manufacturing Systems

V. DHANALAKSHMI 
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Thiagarajar College of Engineering,
Madurai, 625015, India

S. ARUNACHALAM
School of Computing and Technology, Manufacturing Engineering,
University of East London, Longbridge Road, Dagenham, Essex RM8 2AS, UK

K. SANKARANARAYANASAMY
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Thiagarajar College of Engineering,
Madurai, 625015, India

T. PAGE
Department of Design and Technology, Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK

Abstract: Part family formation using fuzzy cluster analysis in Group Technology (GT) and feature recognition for tool access direction using relationship matrix in Computer Aided Process Planning (CAPP) have been presented in this paper. In the process of identifying part-families and machine groups, Fuzzy Cluster Analysis to form machine-part fuzzy relative matrix which converted into a zero-one conventional matrix. A new similarity coefficient, which involves all the entries of the machine-part fuzzy relative matrix resulting in a more realistic part family formation was suggested. The feature extraction system presented in this paper is designed to extract features from a STEP file in Boundary Representation (B-Rep) and Attributed Adjacency matrix. The system is able to automatically extract alternate tool axis directions (TADs). There is a potential applications in set-up change cost optimisation and fixture selection.

Keywords: CAD/CAM, GT, CAPP, part family formation, feature recognition.

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CITE THIS PAPER AS:
V. DHANALAKSHMI, S. ARUNACHALAM, K. SANKARANARAYANASAMY, T. PAGE, A Fuzzy Analysis Approach to Part Family Formation in Cellular Manufacturing Systems, Studies in Informatics and Control, ISSN 1220-1766, vol. 17 (4), pp. 433-440, 2008.