Abstract:
Machining large complex industrial parts with a high accuracy often requires tens or hundreds of thousands of cutter location points and hundreds of hours of machining. That is why reducing the machining time is one of the most important topics in the optimization of CNC codes for 5-axis milling machines. We propose and analyze a new method of constructing curvilinear tool paths which partly or even entirely align with the direction of the maximum material removal rate. The alignment based on the curvilinear elliptic grid generation allows minimization of the machining time while keeping the convenient zigzag-like topology of the path. The method is applicable to a variety of cost functions such as the length of the path, the machining speed, the material removal rate, the kinematic error, etc., generating different machining strategies. The method has been combined with a new version of the adaptive space-filling curves. The material removal rate cost function has been tested against the tool path length minimization. The numerical and machining experiments demonstrate a considerable advantage of the proposed method. We test the algorithm on parametric and STL surfaces and analyze the performance of the proposed method against the conventional methods by using virtual and real machining
Thammasat University. Thammasat University Library