Tool Clean Machine Selection
Machines for the Tool Clean process represent a work area (for manual cleaning) or a combination of a work area and a laser or cryogenic cleaning device. Manual tool cleaning is included in the routing by default, but the user can override the default, and include cryogenic or laser cleaning instead (see
Tool Clean).
For this process, aPriori selects the lowest-overhead, feasible machine. Overhead, here, is the sum of the machine properties Direct Overhead Rate and Indirect Overhead Rate.
A machine is considered feasible if both the following hold:
• Machine can accommodate the length and width of the mold for the part: the mold length and width (see
Tool Length, Width, and Area) must be no greater than the machine properties
Usable Length and
Usable Width.
• The machine property Cleaning Method is set to the appropriate value for the current routing:
o manual, if Manual Tool Cleaning is in the routing.
o cryogenic, if Cryogenic Tool Cleaning is in the routing.
o laser, if Laser Tool Cleaning is in the routing.
aPriori selects only from preferred machines, if there is a feasible preferred machine and the cost model variable usePreferredMachines is set to true (the default in starting point VPEs). If there is no feasible preferred machine, or if the cost model variable usePreferredMachines is set to false, aPriori selects from all machines. A machine is preferred if the machine property isPreferred (typically displayed as Is Preferred) is true.