There has been very little researeh in the field of Reconfigurable machine Tools (RMTs). None of the past research developed a method to design a set of RMT configurations required to maehine a part-family.

This thesis presents a novel method to determine the functional specifications of the RMT configurations required to machine a part-family. The method is developed by firstly designing the RMT required to machine a single part. Thereafter, this method is extrapolated to suit the problem of a part-family.

To design the RMTs for a single part, firstly, the part is decomposed into manufacturing features. Next, a novel method is developed to cluster the features. Each of these featureelusters corresponds to a single RMT configuration. Based on the maehining requirements of these RMT configurations, the modules are designed. These modules are assembled to form the final RMTs. The method is demonstrated by applying it to an example part.