Automatic Tool Selection for NC Turret Operation in Sheet Metal Stamping

In sheet metal fabrication using an NCT (numerically controlled turret punch press) machine, automatic tool selection is a major problem to be solved to improve its production performance. However, this operation has been done either manually or semi-automatically by human experts. In this paper, we have introduced the shape-index-set to handle the shape of sheet metal parts and developed an algorithm through which one can find the successive matching curves between two curve lists, one from the punching tool and the other from the boundaries of the sheet metal part. The algorithm is used to select the tools automatically to punch out the boundaries of sheet metal parts. Several experiments are presented to prove the successful tool selection.