Munitions Manufacturing A Call for Modernization (2002) / Chapter Skim
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5 Controllers
5 Controllers
Pages 75-96
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From page 75... ...
This information was assembled by the TIME program in 75
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From page 76... ...
. It is not unusual for manufacturers to have tens or hundreds of numerically controlled machine tools in a production facility, each with its own proprietary controller.
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The effort associated with object linking and embedding for process control within the controls community has shown the power of the DCOM technology when applied to realistic control problems. The implementation of DCOM still provides challenges to the controls engineer: (~)
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EFFORTS TO DEVELOP OPEN MODULAR ARCHITECTURE CONTROLLERS Concept of Open Architecture There are many interpretations of the word "open" in the machine tool inclustry. Most controllers sold today are open at some level, but no currently available controller is open at every level.
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From page 79... ...
Proponents of open architecture controllers believe that similar benefits will accrue from the development and universal adoption of a similar open approach to machine control. History of Open Architecture, When a few machine tool users and researchers began requesting open architecture controllers in the early 1990s, machine tool builders typically tried to satisfy these demands with microcomputer-based systems.
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came to LLNE with their Requirements of Open, Modular Architecture Controllers for Applications in the Automotive Industry white paper (OMACUG 1994~. LLNL recognized the similarity of its needs.
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Enabling easy and efficient reconfiguration to meet specific needs ranging from high end to low end; Economical. Achieving low life-cycle cost; and Maintainable.
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From page 82... ...
The common control platform at each machine allows a common networking approach for downloading of math data, thus OMAC technologies become one of the key enablers for the successful execution of the math-basecl manufacturing strategy. GM's term "math-based manufacturing" is a combination of the precepts of agile manufacturing, integrated product and process clevelopment, concurrent engineering, art to part, and many other modern manufacturing concepts.
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From page 83... ...
True art-to-part capability has been demonstrated and the controllers are now designed to accept feature-driven STEP-NC information clirectly.2 To this end, the National Institute of Stanclarcis and Technology has fundecl an acivancecl technology program to STEP Tools, Inc., titled Moclel Driven Intelligent Control of Manufacturing available online at |
From page 84... ...
For companies like GM, to change from building a commercial product to building munitions requires a lengthy changeover of equipment. TIME program participants see the OMAC as a means to help them achieve that goal just as GM sees it as a means to help it achieve its engine manufacturing goal.
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From page 85... ...
All of these efforts will use the iclentica~ math-based model developed in the initial simulation, with incremental updates based on increased experience with the equipment and process. The TIME program has also demonstrated the ability to remotely monitor the process, which is important for safety reasons.
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88~. Munitions Industry Needs and Commercial Controller Capabilities The TIME program selected two process control examples, that they believe to represent munitions industry challenges that can be met only by using OMACs.
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The TIME program maintains that currently available COTS controllers fall short in meeting the needs and desires of the munitions industry, as shown in Table 5-1. The TIME program anticipates that the OMAC, when fully developed, will allow for a unique open solution that meets all of the munitions industry needs and desires.
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From page 88... ...
No commercial controllers allow for closing loops to levels that include changing control laws and interacting with the entire control architecture. DOOM is heavily utilized as communications infrastructure and does not meet real-time deterministic requirements because of latency and timeout constraints.
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The single development environment allows for the extensibility of all aspects of the control system without respect to it being a PLC, motion, or modeling problem. The cleve~opment concentrates on the control problem and does not have an arbitrary partitioning.
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CNCs using microcomputer components and standard commercial software have become so low in cost that they appear to be riding the curve of microcomputer prices. Customers, including big auto companies and small job shops, are buying the largest number of machine tools as commodities (small lathes, small electrical discharge machining units, punch presses, and vertical machining centers)
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From page 91... ...
Even more experimental platforms—such as the OMAC- are available from research laboratories, but in the opinion of the committee, these are well beyond the cu rrent scope and needs of TO M E Commercial off-the Shelf Controls Versus Industry Needs Until the mid-1980s, all of the CNC machines supplied by machine tool vendors had closed architecture controllers provided by companies such as Fanuc, Mazak, and Cincinnati Milacron (now Acramatic Siemens)
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From page 92... ...
1998~; and (3) toclay's open architecture COTS controllers allow a machine tool to automatically compensate for errors in positioning of the work piece and make possible the active control of the machining process by accepting input from external sensors.
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The committee agrees with the TIME program that if and when the O MAC development effort is successfully completed and when a wide variety of proven components are commercially available, the effort to modernize the munitions industry would benefit in terms of (1~ lower-cost hardware and software due to increased head-to-head competition, (2) easier system integration and easier integration of enhanced functions, (3)
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From page 94... ...
It appears to the committee that, in an era of limited defense budgets, progress in implementing today's COTS technologies will do far more to assure rapid sca~e-up for replenishment than trying to develop OMAC technologies that may ultimately offer only marginal advantages. Similarly, the committee believes that the melt pour process line at the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant can be remotely operated successfully and safely using COTS technologies and that only slight improvements are likely in the near
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From page 95... ...
Process control experts at corporations such as Honeywell International and Foxboro5 design and install control systems for processes of equivalent or greater complexity on a routine basis. Recommendation: The committee recommencis that the Army issue contracts to commercial process control experts to implement moclern, commercial-off-theshelf control technologies on energetics process equipment in governmentownecl munitions manufacturing facilities.
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From page 96... ...
that cannot be adequately addressed by today's COTS controllers. Recommendation: As part of overall munitions industry planning, the TIME program should conduct a bottom-up munitions industry study of specific machine and process controller requirements for the next 10 years.
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