Integration of metal cutting tool resharpening into manufacturing process planning

The performance of machining centers and flexible manufacturing systems to a great deal depends upon the availability and the quality of the tools needed to machine the parts according to the production plan. Investigations showed that in many cases downtimes of the machines are due to a poor tooling. In order to overcome these disturbances of the manufacturing processes many companies increase the number of tools in stock. A more efficient way would be to integrate the planning of the tool resharpening and reconditioning into the production and manufacturing planning process. For this purpose the "event-oriented tool-management" (ETM) was designed. This software-tool combines the planning of the tool room activities and the manufacturing planning and control. The "event-oriented tool-management", its modules and its performance are discussed in the paper, giving special attention to the tool and cutter grinding and resharpening.