A New Model of WEDM-CNC System with Digitizer/Player Architecture

Nowadays typical WEDM-CNC systems are built as a monolithic application program with multiple threads or multiple processes. In the light of the modern computational paradigm, it is no doubt that the intelligent manufacturing systems must be built on the basis of the Internet infrastructure. This paper proposes a new model of CNC system for WEDM based on a digitizer/player architecture which is implemented in the Client/Server mode. The predefined continuous tool path described in G code is atomically digitalized by a digitizer with a specific tool path interpolator namely the Generalized Unit Arc Length Increment (GUALI) method. The increments for each moving axis are encoded in the bitstream format and compressed and stored in a file for further execution. On the client side, the real-time motion control of the tool path is implemented by a player which plays back the motion bit-stream by fetching the data from the server, and the feedrate along the tool path can be modulated by the gap discharge status to maintain a stable machining process. By applying the new model of WEDM-CNC system, the machine tool controller becomes extremely simple in accordance with the thought of thin client in the network-computing environment.