Compensating Cleanup Tool Path

Author(s):  
Xiaohong Zhu ◽  
Richard F. Riesenfeld

Abstract Today’s part geometries are becoming ever more complex and require more accurate tool path to manufacture. Machining process efficiency is also a major consideration for designers as well as manufacturing engineers. Although the current advanced CAD/CAM systems have greatly improved the efficiency and accuracy of machining with the introduction of Numerically–Controlled machining, excessive material may still be left on the finished part due to machining constraints, including the inaccessibility of the designed part geometry with respect the cutter, machine motion constraints like ramp angles, specific cutting patterns, etc. Polishing operations such as grinding and hand finishing are quite time consuming and expensive, and may damage the surface of the part or introduce inaccuracies because of human errors. While most of the existing machining approaches attempt to reduce such excessive restmaterials by modifying NC tool paths, none of them is satisfactory. They can be time–consuming, error prone, computationally intensive, too complicated to implement, and limited to certain problem domains. A compensating cleanup tool path will be developed in this research to automatically remove these excessive material from the finish part. This method greatly reduces the burden of hand finishing and polishing, and also reduces the error and complexities introduced in manually generating cleanup tool paths in the shop floor. More important, the tool path generated by this method will reduce the machining time, and increase tool life compared with optimized tool path which left no excessive material behind.

2011 ◽  
Vol 223 ◽  
pp. 691-700 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xavier Beudaert ◽  
Pierre Yves Pechard ◽  
Christophe Tournier

In the context of 5-axis flank milling, the machining of non-developable ruled surfaces may lead to complex tool paths to minimize undercut and overcut. The curvature characteristics of these tool paths generate slowdowns affecting the machining time and the quality of the machined surface. The tool path has to be as smooth as possible while respecting the maximum allowed tolerance. In this paper, an iterative approach is proposed to smooth an initial tool path. An indicator of the maximum feedrate is computed using the kinematical constraints of the considered machine tool, especially the maximum velocity, acceleration and jerk. Then, joint coordinates of the tool path are locally smoothed in order to raise the effective feedrate in the area of interest. Machining simulation based on a N-buffer algorithm is used to control undercut and overcut. This method has been tested in flank milling of an impeller and can be applied in 3 to 5-axis machining.


Author(s):  
David Manuel Ochoa González ◽  
Joao Carlos Espindola Ferreira

Traditional (direction-parallel and contour-parallel) and non-traditional (trochoidal) tool paths are generated by specialized geometric algorithms based on the pocket shape and various parameters. However, the tool paths generated with those methods do not usually consider the required machining power. In this work, a method for generating power-aware tool paths is presented, which uses the power consumption estimation for the calculation of the tool path. A virtual milling system was developed to integrate with the tool path generation algorithm in order to obtain tool paths with precise power requirement control. The virtual milling system and the tests used to calibrate it are described within this article, as well as the proposed tool path generation algorithm. Results from machining a test pocket are presented, including the real and the estimated power requirements. Those results were compared with a contour-parallel tool path strategy, which has a shorter machining time but has higher in-process power consumption.


Author(s):  
Adam Jacso ◽  
Tibor Szalay ◽  
Juan Carlos Jauregui ◽  
Juvenal Rodriguez Resendiz

Many applications are available for the syntactic and semantic verification of NC milling tool paths in simulation environments. However, these solutions – similar to the conventional tool path generation methods – are generally based on geometric considerations, and for that reason they cannot address varying cutting conditions. This paper introduces a new application of a simulation algorithm that is capable of producing all the necessary geometric information about the machining process in question for the purpose of further technological analysis. For performing such an analysis, an image space-based NC simulation algorithm is recommended, since in the case of complex tool paths it is impossible to provide an analytical description of the process of material removal. The information obtained from the simulation can be used not only for simple analyses, but also for optimisation purposes with a view to increasing machining efficiency.


2013 ◽  
Vol 464 ◽  
pp. 258-264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing Shi ◽  
Qing Zhen Bi ◽  
Yu Han Wang ◽  
Gang Liu

Curving tool paths composed of straight lines, which are often represented as G01 blocks, are still the most widespread format form in the machining process chain of CAD/CAM/CNC. At the junctions between consecutive segments, the tangency and curvature discontinuities may lead to feedrate fluctuation and acceleration oscillation, which would deteriorate the machining efficiency and quality. In this paper, a real-time look-ahead interpolation methodology is proposed, which adopts a curvature-continuous PH curve as a transition to blend corner at the junction of adjacent lines in the tool path. The blending algorithm can guarantee the approximation error exactly, and the control points of the curve can be calculated analytically. On the other hand, the arc length and the curvature of the transition curve, which are important items in speed planning, also have analytical expressions. All the advantages are the guarantee of calculation efficiency during the interpolation. Except for a curvature-continuous tool path, our look-ahead algorithm adopts a speed planning window strategy to achieve a balance between the calculation capabilities and the real-time interpolation requirements. In this window, the corner transition algorithm and speed planning are implemented simultaneously and dynamically during the interpolation. By defining the width of this window, which is actually the number of linear segments contained in this window, can adjust the time consuming of speed planning. Simulation and experiments on our own developed CNC platform are conducted. The results demonstrate the feasibility and efficiency of the proposed algorithms.


Author(s):  
Dun Lu ◽  
Jun Liu ◽  
Wanhua Zhao ◽  
Bingheng Lu ◽  
Diaodiao Wu ◽  
...  

Blades are essential parts used in thermal and nuclear power generation. Its machining precision is a vital factor that influences the efficiency and life of those industries. Blades are thin-walled parts, which could easily deform under cutting forces, and hence deteriorate the machining precision. In our previous work, a milling process with twin tool for blade is proposed, in which two tools are assigned to machine the basin and dorsal surfaces simultaneously. It is expected that the cutting forces acted on the basin and dorsal surfaces can be counteracted to reduce the deformation of the blade. In this study, a method of twin-tool paths generation is developed. The tool center points and tool axis vectors are generated with consideration of the cutting forces balance, the machine tool kinematics, the surface geometric precision, and the same number of tool paths on basin and dorsal surfaces. Virtual machining, finite element analysis, and trial cutting are carried out and verified that the method which is used for generating the twin-tool paths is successful. The basin and dorsal surfaces have the same number of tool paths and tool contact point coordinates, which guarantees that the two surfaces can be completely machined and can be machined and finished simultaneously. Furthermore, the cutting forces acted on the basin and dorsal surfaces can achieve the balance along the twin-tool paths. Therefore, the deformation of a blade caused by cutting force is obviously reduced compared with a conventional machining process with a single tool.


2014 ◽  
Vol 633-634 ◽  
pp. 615-619
Author(s):  
Su Juan Wang ◽  
Su Et To ◽  
Xin Chen ◽  
Jian Qun Liu

This paper studies the development of cutting strategy in the fabrication of freeform surface in ultra-precision raster milling (UPRM). The tasks of developing cutting strategy in freeform machining involve in the selection of cutting parameters and the planning of tool paths. An integrated system is built in this study to develop the cutting strategy, automatically generate NC program, simulate the tool paths and machining process, as well as make predictions for the machining time and the surface quality of the raster milled freeform surface. Experiment is conducted to verify the developed system and the experimental results show that the system is applicable for the machining of freeform surface in UPRM. This study therefore contributes to avoiding the need to conduct expensive and time consuming trial cutting tests to ensure the product quality in the freeform machining.


Author(s):  
Der-Min Tsay ◽  
Hsin-Pao Chen ◽  
Sa´ndor Vajna ◽  
Michael Schabacker

To increase productivity of marine propellers by raising machining efficiency, this paper presents the zigzag/spiral tool paths generation algorithm based on the arc base curve approach for three-axis machining of curved surfaces of propellers. By considering the shapes of selected cutters with different types of tool paths generated by the proposed procedure, machining efficiency can be calculated and simulated. To verify the accuracy and effectiveness of the developed approach, numerical and experimental results of machining of propeller surfaces are compared. It was proved that the machining time can be cut down up to 19% by using zigzag tool paths with a toroidal cutter. In addition, the machining knowledge revealed here can be accumulated for benefit evaluation in the manufacturing process with existing CAD/CAM systems. From the cost model, design, and process views, the overall cost savings after 5 years are investigated, and the expected benefit yield is about 45%.


2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 104-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Mi’radj Isnaini ◽  
◽  
Yusaku Shinoki ◽  
Ryuta Sato ◽  
Keiichi Shirase

A unique machining knowledge has led to several different perspectives between planners and operators as regards in designing a machining process plan. All precedents have shown the need to maintain a suitable machining process plan. Commercial Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM) systems have facilitated the manipulation of 3D models to generate a machining process plan. The open Advanced Programming Interfaces (APIs) are also helpful in tailoring decision support systems to determine process plans. This study proposes an emergent system to generate flexible machining process plans. The proposed system considers the integration between design and manufacturing perspective to produce relevant machining process plan. The generation of process plans begins by considering the total removal volume of the raw material, estimating the removal features, thus analyzing and ordering several candidates of machining process plans. The total machining time and number of setups from each machining process plan candidate is analyzed and evaluated. Eventually, the proposed system is tested using several prismatic 3D models of a workpiece to show the outcomes.


1994 ◽  
Vol 116 (2) ◽  
pp. 253-259 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Suresh ◽  
D. C. H. Yang

A novel approach for the NC tool-path generation of free-form surfaces is presented. Traditionally, the distance between adjacent tool-paths in either the Euclidean space or in the parametric space is kept constant. Instead, in this work, the scallop-height is kept constant. This leads to a significant reduction in the size of the CL (cutter location) data accompanied by a reduction in the machining time. This work focuses on the zig-zag (meander) finishing using a ball-end milling cutter.


Author(s):  
Ruth Jill Urbanic ◽  
Bob Hedrick

Additive manufacturing layer-based solution approaches have been applied for several technologies and systems. Process planning solutions are being developed for planar applications, but rotary applications can benefit from an additive manufacturing ‘rotary layering’ strategy as well. There are systems that have been developed to coat pipes and other rotationally symmetric components, and there are multi-axis applications that would require rotary-like tool paths. Developing and exploring additive rotary tool path applications is the focus of this research. These initial solutions will be applicable for direct energy deposition and thermal spraying models. AM rotary proof of concept tool paths are developed using a commercial CAD/CAM software, and a software development kit (SDK). Selected case studies are presented, with varying levels of geometric complexity.


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