Optimized tool path generation based on dynamic programming for five-axis flank milling of rule surface

This paper presents a computation scheme that generates optimized tool path for five-axis flank milling of ruled surface. Tool path planning is transformed into a matching problem between two point sets in 3D space, sampled from the boundary curves of the machined surface. Each connection in the matching corresponds to a possible tool position. Dynamic programming techniques are applied to obtain the optimal combination of tool positions with the objective function as machining error. The error estimation considers both the deviation induced by the cutter at discrete positions and the one between them. The path planning problem is thus solved in a systematic manner by formulizing it as a mathematical programming task. In addition, the scheme incorporates several optimization parameters that allow generating new patterns of tool motion. Implementation results obtained from simulation and experiment indicate that our method produces better machining quality. This work provides a concise but effective approach for machining error control in five-axis flank milling.     

Machining accuracy improvement in five-axis flank milling of ruled surfaces

The aim of this study is to develop a new adjustment method for improving machining accuracy of tool path in five-axis flank milling of ruled surfaces. This method considers interpolation sampling time of the five-axis machine tools controller in NC tool path planning. The actual interpolation position and orientation between G01 commands are estimated with the first differential approximation of Taylor expansion. The tool swept volume is modeled using the envelope surface and compared with the design surface to determine the deviation, which corresponds to the machining error induced by the linear interpolation. We propose a feedrate adjustment rule that automatically controls the tool motion at feedrate-sensitive corners based on a bisection method, thus limiting the maximum machining errors and improving the machining accuracy. Experimental cuts are conducted on different ruled surfaces to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. The result shows that it can enhance the machining quality in five-axis flank milling in both simulation and practical operation.     

A smooth curve evolution approach to the feedrate planning on five-axis toolpath with geometric and kinematic constraints

Feedrate planning with geometric and kinematic constraints is crucial for sculptured surface machining. Due to the non-linear relationship between the Cartesian space and the joint space, the feedrate planning method for a given five-axis toolpath is very limited compared with that in three-axis machining. To achieve the exact control of the chord error and the kinematic characteristics of cutter and machine tool, this paper presents a new feedrate planning method for five-axis parametric path using a smooth curve evolution strategy. The constraints in feedrate planning are first classified as two types of neighbor-independent (NI) constraints and neighbor-dependent (ND) constraints. Then for constraint violated region, the detailed formulas of determining the update feedrates of violated sampling points are given using a decoupled manner. As a result, NI and ND constraints are satisfied respectively with one step and multi-step smooth curve evolution technique, which can smoothly deform the target feedrate profile to the desired update positions. Simulations and experiments are performed on the given tool path to validate the effectiveness of the proposed feed planning method. The results show that the proposed method is robust and effective in the exact control of constraints in the feedrate planning on complex five-axis toolpath.     

数控5轴龙门机床的虚拟加工系统开发

针对新研制的龙门移动式数控5轴车铣复合机床XKA2780结构复杂,已有成熟虚拟加工系统灵活性差,必须要系统厂家深度开发方能实现的问题,文章提出了一种灵活可控的虚拟加工方法,首先基于大型工程软件开发平台ACIS/HOOPS,采用组件结构树的建模方法,建立了机床各组件之间的运动学关系并开发了相应的运动控制模型;其次通过扫描包络技术研究了刀具扫描包络体生成算法;然后以刀具轨迹为引导,将生成的刀具扫描包络体与工件进行布尔运算,实现了仿真环境中工件的虚拟切削;最后,通过对典型航天零部件的加工代码仿真和现场机床切削试验,验证系统的可靠性。实践结果表明,该系统可以对加工代码进行有效验证,且运动控制可兼容各种构型数控机床。     

5-Axis adaptive flank milling of flexible thin-walled parts based on the on-machine measurement

Deformation of the part and cutter caused by cutting forces immediately affects the dimensional accuracy of manufactured parts. This paper presents an integrated machining deviation compensation strategy based on on-machine measurement (OMM) inspection system. Previous research attempts on this topic deal with deformation compensation in machining of geometries in 3-axis machine tools only. This paper is the first time that concerned with 5-axis flank milling of flexible thin-walled parts. To capture the machined surface precision dimensions, OMM with a touch-trigger probe installed on machine׳s spindle is utilized. Probe path is planned to obtain the coordinate of the sampling points on machined surface. The machined surface can then be reconstructed. Meanwhile, the cutter׳s envelope surface is calculated based on nominal cutter location source file (CLSF). Subsequently, the machining error caused by part and cutter deflection is calibrated by comparing the deviation between the machined surface and the envelope surface. An iteration toolpath compensation algorithm is designed to decrease machining errors and avoid unwanted interference by modifying the toolpath. Experiment of machining the impeller blade is carried out to validate the methodology developed in this paper. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method in machining error compensation.     

Spiral cutting operation strategy for machining of sculptured surfaces by conformal map approach

Although compound surfaces and polyhedral models are widely used in manufacturing industry, the tool path planning strategies are very limited for such surfaces in five-axis machining and high speed machining. In this paper, a novel conformal map based and planar spiral guided spiral tool path generation method is described for NC machining of complex surfaces. The method uses conformal map to establish a relationship between 3D physical surface and planar circular region. This enables NC operation to be performed as if the surface is plat. Then through inversely mapping a planar spiral defined by a mathematical function into 3D physical space, the spiral cutter contact paths are derived without inheriting any corners on the boundary in the subsequent interior paths. The main advantage of the proposed method is that a smoother, longer and boundary conformed spiral topography tool path is developed. Therefore, the machined surface can be cut continuously with minimum tool retractions during the cutting operations. And it allows both compound surfaces and triangular surfaces can be machined at high speed. Finally, experimental results are given to testify the proposed approach.     

一种摆头转台式五轴机床后处理算法研究

目前国内企业普遍采用的CAD/CAM软件主要适用于三轴以下数控代码产生,而对于五轴机床一般不提供或只提供几种固定机床结构的后处理支持,为解决cAM软件对五轴机床后处理能力的不足,文中针对摆头转台式五轴机床,研究一种采用Apt语言的刀具路径文件后处理算法,通过读取文件中每一加工点的位置坐标及曲面单位法矢,利用坐标系的平移和旋转得到机床实际移动位移,并根据机床定义转换为相应G代码,最后通过实际加工验证了算法的有效性.     

Enhanced virtual machining for sculptured surfaces by integrating machine tool error models into NC machining simulation

Sculptured surface machining is a time-consuming and costly process. It requires simultaneously controlled motion of the machine axes. However, positioning inaccuracies or errors exist in machine tools. The combination of error motions of the machine axes will result in a complicated pattern of part geometry errors. In order to quantitatively predict these part geometry errors, a new application framework ‘enhanced virtual machining’ is developed. It integrates machine tool error models into NC machining simulation. The ideal cutter path in the NC program for surface machining is discretized into sub-paths. For each interpolated cutter location, the machine geometric errors are predicted from the machine tool error model. Both the solid modeling approach and the surface modeling approach are used to translate machine geometric errors into part geometry errors for sculptured surface machining. The solid modeling approach obtains the final part geometry by subtracting the tool swept volume from the stock geometric model. The surface modeling approach approximates the actual cutter contact points by calculating the cutting tool motion and geometry. The simulation results show that the machine tool error model can be effectively integrated into sculptured surface machining to predict part geometry errors before the real cutting begins.     

Tool path planning for five-axis machining using the principal axis method

A study of the effect of feed direction on five-axis tool paths generated using local surface properties for tool orientation and positioning is presented in this paper. The principal axis method for five-axis machining defines the placement of the cutting tool at a single point on the workpiece surface and assumes that a preferred feed direction will be maintained. This preferred direction may not represent a practical choice for tool path planning. In this work, numerical simulations are used to evaluate tool paths with different feed directions. Numerical simulations are then verified experimentally by machining two example surfaces. The results show that both gouging and the effective cutter profile will dictate the optimal choice of feed direction.     

Swept surface determination for five-axis numerical control machining

This paper presents a closed-form solution of the swept profile of a generalized cutter in five-axis numerical control (NC) machining. The machine configurations and tool movements defined in NC programs are considered to model the true machine tool trajectory, which includes the linearly translational and rotational movements. Based on the machine tool trajectory and the cutter geometry, the cutter’s instantaneous swept profile is determined. By integrating the intermediate swept profiles, the cutter’s swept envelope can be constructed and applied to NC verification. The proposed method provides the explicit solution of the swept profile of a generalized cutter, which is important but not possible in the existing methods for five-axis NC verification. The computer implementations show that the approach developed is superior to the traditional methods.     

Swept volume generation for the simulation of machining processes

To enhance the accuracy of five-axis milling processes, a simulation based NC-path optimization provides an efficient approach. The key to a reliable simulation of cutting processes is the accurate geometric modeling of engagement conditions and the resulting workpiece geometry. The article proposes a novel approach to calculate the cutter profile for modeling swept volume with respect to trajectory of the cutter. In terms of envelope theory, a swept volume is created as a NURBS surface representation. The proposed method is robust and the results can be applied to material removal simulations based on Boolean operation, as well as discrete methods.     

基于CATIA平底铣刀五轴数控编程技术研究

在五轴联动数控加工中,通常采用球头铣刀进行曲面的加工,但是对于双曲面加工,球头铣刀的加工效果较平底铣刀有所不足,因此需要采用平底铣刀来替代球头刀具进行双曲面的加工。但是采用平底铣刀加工双曲面时,由于曲面各处曲率的变化导致刀路轨迹的规划复杂而且困难,而大大影响其在加工曲面中的应用。对此,研究利用平底铣刀的五轴数控联动机床加工双曲面时的刀路轨迹,通过计算得到刀路轨迹的刀位点,设计出利用平底铣刀的五轴数控联动机床加工曲面的刀位轨迹规划方法。结果表明:该方法改善了五轴数控加工中球头铣刀的不足之处,提高了曲面加工的加工质量、加工精度和加工效率。     

Smooth trajectory generation for five-axis machine tools

This paper presents a smooth spline interpolation technique for five-axis machining of sculptured surfaces. The tool tip and orientation locations generated by the CAM system are first fitted to quintic splines independently to achieve geometric jerk continuity while decoupling the relative changes in position and orientation of the cutter along the curved path. The non-linear relationship between spline parameters and displacements along the path is approximated with ninth order and seventh order feed correction splines for position and orientation, respectively. The high order feed correction splines allow minimum deviation from the reference axis commands while preserving continuous jerk on three translational and two rotary drives. The proposed method has been experimentally demonstrated to show improvements in reducing the excitation of inertial vibrations while improving tracking accuracy in five-axis machining of curved paths found in dies, molds and aerospace parts.     

Removing tool marks of blade surfaces by smoothing five-axis point milling cutter paths

Focused on the reverse movements of moving axes along five-axis tool paths, this study presents a procedure of removing a gouge phenomenon on impeller surfaces in five-axis machining. That is, when an impeller of a centrifugal compressor is being cut in finish milling, reverse movements and/or other linearization problems of moving axes along a five-axis interference-free tool path may make a cutter leave tool marks on the impeller surfaces. For generating interference-free cutter location (CL) data needed in rough, semi-finish and finish five-axis cutting processes, first, a simple yet useful approach is proposed. To identify the potential gouge area and to solve the problem for a tool path having reverse motion directions with its moving axes in finish milling, the CL data are further smoothed to remove the reverse movements about its rotating and tilting axes. The effectiveness of this procedure has been experimentally confirmed by successful five-axis finish milling of an impeller without leaving tool marks on its surfaces. In addition, with the spline tool paths, the machining time can be saved up to 23.57%.     

An error control approach to tool path adjustment conforming to the deformation of thin-walled workpiece

Producing an accurate part mainly depends on the position and orientation of the cutting tool with respect to the workpiece which is mainly influenced by the rigid body motion of the workpiece and the elastic deformation of workpiece-fixture-cutter system. For the purpose of minimizing the machining error, a new modification strategy of the nominal tool path is not that directly compensate the control commands of the machine tools, but that modify the cutter location source file (CLSF) from the computer aided manufacturing (CAM) system by means of the proposed modification model on the basis of the prediction deviation, namely, the deviation of the cutting tool relative to the workpiece in computer numerical control (CNC) machining operation. Therefore, it is not only simpler, but also easier implemented by common manufacturing engineer. The effectiveness of the proposed strategy is verified by a machining example.     

Multibody dynamic modeling of five-axis machine tool vibrations and controller

A computationally efficient, reduced-order multibody dynamic model of a five-axis machine tool is presented. The machine tool is modeled by substructures assembled via flexible springs and damping elements at interfaces which affect the machining performance. NC tool path commands are processed by the linear acceleration-based motion trajectory filters and fed to the axis servo controllers through an inverse kinematic model of the machine. The computed motor torque commands are applied to the structural dynamic model of the machine at the motor connections. The experimentally validated model predicts the performance of the five-axis CNC machine's controller along the tool path.     

Improvement strategy for machine tool vibration induced from the movement of a counterweight during machining process

The objective of this study is to propose and execute an improvement strategy for machine tool vibration induced from the movement of a counterweight balance system during the machining process. The elastic jump due to the effects of the inertia of a counterweight and of the potential energy released from the connected chain is investigated, firstly by using the dynamic analysis numerical software, Nastran, when the machine tool head makes a sudden stop during different motion types in the machining process. In turn, the vibration energy absorber, such as spring and damper, is assembled together in parallel manner, which is then connected to the counterweight in series, attempting to reduce the phenomenon of induced vibration to the utmost. The design and fabrication of a vibration reduction system for machine tool head during the machining process is performed based on the absorber parameters obtained from the simulation calculations. Milling experiment on aluminum alloy is undertaken in conjunction with various CNC cutting-path planning, such as moderate steps and vertical steps under different feed-rate cutting conditions. No concentric-strip-like waviness was detected on machined surface during the former cutting path. But such kinds of waviness marks left on the machined surface around the corner area between the subsequent steps are very obvious with the vertical-step path. This induced tool vibration phenomenon is remarkably improved through the strategies proposed and implemented in this study.     

A machining test to calibrate rotary axis error motions of five-axis machine tools and its application to thermal deformation test

This paper proposes a machining test to parameterize error motions, or position-dependent geometric errors, of rotary axes in a five-axis machine tool. At the given set of angular positions of rotary axes, a square-shaped step is machined by a straight end mill. By measuring geometric errors of the finished test piece, the position and the orientation of rotary axis average lines (location errors), as well as position-dependent geometric errors of rotary axes, can be numerically identified based on the machine׳s kinematic model. Furthermore, by consequently performing the proposed machining test, one can quantitatively observe how error motions of rotary axes change due to thermal deformation induced mainly by spindle rotation. Experimental demonstration is presented.     

非摆线型采油螺杆泵转子复合加工机床研制

针对现有双头螺杆泵转子线型存在的问题以及加工方法的局限性,通过研究非摆线螺杆泵转子线型形成原理,设计了非摆线型采油螺杆泵转子复合加工机床,利用立铣刀对做行星运动的工件进行包络,加工出非摆线型螺杆泵转子。根据机床的机械结构以及转子加工表面的形成运动,对转子加工机床进行了运动分析,确定了机床各轴之间的运动关系。并分析立铣刀在加工转子时所产生的截面轮廓误差,确定了误差随工件自转转速变化的关系,对非摆线型螺杆泵转子的加工提供了参考。