Development process and data management of TurnSTEP, a STEP-compliant CNC system for turning

TurnSTEP is one of the earliest STEP-compliant CNC systems for turning. Based on the STEP-NC data model formalized as ISO 14649-12 and 121, it is designed to support intelligent and autonomous control of NC machines for e-manufacturing. The present paper introduces the development process and data management capability of TurnSTEP. After the overall architecture of the system is presented, the paper discusses the development process of TurnSTEP. Then, it describes the TurnSTEP repository that enables sharing product information anytime, anywhere, on any platform which is an important requirement for e-manufacturing. In addition, the paper presents a method to express STEP data using XML as a core technology of the repository. Since XML is a standard format for data exchange on the web, it is indispensable for the repository to support XML. This method uses only the extension mechanism supported by XML schema to express complex data structures in EXPRESS. It enables product data to be easily stored and shared across the web. Finally, the paper introduces a translator, using the method, which converts STEP data in the clear text format into XML and vice versa.