STEP-compliant CAD/CNC system for feature-oriented machining

STEP-NC is proposed for the next generation of data exchange between CAD/CAM and CNC systems. However, the STEP-compliant CAD/CAM systems and STEP-compliant CNC systems are researched individually in the last decade, which hinders the practical applications of STEP-NC. In the paper, STEP-compliant CAD/CNC system is proposed that consists of STEP-CAD and STEP-CNC, and feature-oriented machining is introduced for 2.5D feature and freeform surface machining, wherein T-spline is introduced for the representation and data exchange of freeform surface. A practical machine tool is constructed under the proposed STEP-compliant CAD/CNC system. Some workpieces are tested to verify the feasibility of the proposed STEP-compliant CAD/CNC system for the feature-oriented machining.