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US 6,687,557 B2Granted
Consolidated component catalog
OwnerNorman Ken Ouchiinventor
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OwnerNorman Ken Ouchiinventor
Estimating the term…
This invention is related to electronic product description transfer between a trading partner that designs a product and a trading partner that manufactures the product and more particularly to the organization and use of a catalog of component information used in the generation of process documents and programs to adapt an assembly process to assemble the product as specified in the electronic product description. In the present invention, a consolidated component catalog provides the information for a component used in the assembly of a product in two sections: an assembly process independent section and an assembly process dependent section. The assembly process independent information is used to correct and validate the product description information. The assembly process dependent information is used to generate the programs and documents to adapt an assembly process to assemble the product described in the product description. A component is identified using a part number from a part number system in the product description and the consolidated component catalog. Another product description using the same component may identify the component with a second part number from a second part number system. The consolidated component catalog relates the first part number and second part number to the component so that redundant component information is not created.
A Consolidated Component Catalog, a Computer Aided Manufacturing Program, a description of a product assembled from components and a first adaptable assembly process wherein the Consolidated Component Catalog contains Assembly Process Independent Component Information such that the Computer Aided Manufacturing Program uses the Assembly Process Independent Component Information to correct and validate the description of the product.
A two-phase assembly process adaptation process;
A consolidated CAM program component catalog, a CAM program, a description of a product assembled from components, and a first adaptable assembly process wherein the consolidated CAM program component catalog contains assembly process independent component information and assembly process dependent component information that are used by the CAM program to correct and validate the description of the product and adapt the first adaptable assembly process to assemble the product described in the validated description.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.