Quick Turnaround Cell
ME 459 Advanced Topics in Design and Manufacturing
1. What is QTC?
Quick Turnaround Cell is an integrated CAD/CAM system in which a feature based design model is used for process planning. QTC aims at coupling design by features, process planning and vision inspection. QTC uses a B-rep solid modeller which is able to generate an annotated boundary model, i.e. boundary faces are tagged with feature information such as face type and feature type. By collecting all faces with the same tag, whole and partial features can be identified in a B-rep model after intersection with other features. Feature refinement is applied to this model in order to arrive at a model in terms of manufacturing features.
QTCII is QTC's successor. In QTCII, designers can work with protrusion and depression features, while in QTC version 1 only depression features are available. Depression features usually correspond with machining (cutting) processes and are therefore easy to handle in process planning. As QTC version 1 only allowed depression features, feature refinement was relatively easy. As protrusion features are useful to designers, QTCII provides them as well. A backward-growing methodology for handling protrusion features for process planning is employed.
2. Research Institutes
QTC in Purdue
3. Links
