Tool path generation for ultra-precision machining of free-form surfaces

The generation of tool paths for ultra-precision machining is still a limiting factor in the manufacturing of parts with complex optical surfaces. In conventional machining as well as in complex five axes machining the application of CAD- and CAM-software for the generation of tool paths is state of the art. But these software solutions are not able to generate tool paths according to the high requirements of ultra-precision machining. This paper describes possible ways to generate tool paths for ultra-precision machining when the optical surface can be analytically described or when the surface data is derived from optical design software. Ultra-precision milling experiments with different tool paths have been carried out and the quality of the machined geometry has been evaluated concerning the achievable form accuracy.     

纵扭复合超声端面铣削表面微结构建模与试验研究

目的 对纵扭复合超声端面铣削加工表面微结构进行预测,以优化加工参数。方法 对纵扭复合超声端面铣削进行运动学分析,并在其基础上建立三维运动轨迹方程。对刀尖轨迹仿真,且研究该运动方式下的加工特性。通过对切削刃和工件离散化建立纵扭复合超声端面铣削表面微结构理论模型,并利用MATLAB进行三维表面仿真。对TC4钛合金进行超声振动切削试验。结果 理论仿真和切削试验结果均表明超声纵扭端面铣削时,随振幅的增加,由振动引起的表面微观结构特征愈加明显。扭纵幅值比增大时,加工表面微观结构凹坑效应弱化,At/Al=0.55时,加工表面呈条形片状微观结构。振动频率和主轴转速会影响表面微观结构单元的疏密程度。结论 加工表面微结构的生成与振动频率、振幅、扭纵复制比、切削速度等加工参数相关,铣削实验得到的加工表面变化趋势与表面理论模型吻合,该表面模型能够优化超声加工参数。     

5-Axis tool path smoothing based on drive constraints

In high speed machining, the real feedrate is often lower than the programmed one. This reduction of the feedrate is mainly due to the physical limits of the drives, and affects machining time as well as the quality of the machined surface. Indeed, if the tool path presents sharp geometrical variations the feedrate has to be decreased to respect the drive constraints in terms of velocity, acceleration and jerk. Thus, the aim of this paper is to smooth 5-axis tool paths in order to maximize the real feedrate and to reduce the machining time.Velocity, acceleration and jerk limits of each drive allow to compute an evaluation of the maximum reachable feedrate which is then used to localize the areas where the tool path has to be smoothed. So starting from a given tool path, the proposed algorithm iteratively smoothes the joint motions in order to raise the real feedrate. This algorithm has been tested in 5-axis end milling of an airfoil and in flank milling of an impeller for which a N-buffer algorithm is used to control the geometrical deviations. An important reduction of the measured machining time is demonstrated in both examples.     

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.     

The application of an inclined end mill machining strategy on 3-axis machining centres

An inclined end mill machining strategy offers an effective machining method for manufacturing low curvature free-form surfaces. The machined surface profile is a close match to the required surface geometry, and standard end mills are available at competitive prices. The amount of surface finishing work is therefore reduced, and the inclined cutting action prolongs the tool life. Although this machining strategy has these advantages, it is not commonly used in manufacturing industry, because it needs the facilities of costly 5-axis machining centres and appropriate post processors are required to generate the NC codes for these advanced machine tools. This paper proposes a simple method which extends the machining capability of the conventional 3-axis machining centre to give the same specifications as a 5-axis machine, and therefore allow the inclined end mill machining strategy to be used on 3-axis machines. The method involves tilting the workpiece instead of tilting the end mill during the machining process. The tool paths are determined by the workpiece rotation and cutter contact point offset equations. The amount of excess material on the machined surface is minimized by choosing optimum pitching and rolling angles at the work set-up stage. The experimental results indicate that the quality of the machined surfaces is improved in comparison with the surfaces machined by ball-nosed cutters, e.g. the resulting cusp volume is reduced by 64%. The research suggests that the need for advanced and expensive 5-axis machining could be satisfied in a more economical machining environment. As a result, the machining cost of the products may be significantly reduced.     

Digital manufacture of large-grade hydro turbine's blades

The blade is one of the vital components and the most difficulty in manufacturing of large hydro turbines. In order to cost-effectively and productively manufacture these kinds of blades, a series of innovative digital techniques have been developed. It includes the digital design of hydro turbine blades based on manufacturers’ requirements, computer-aided location and the machined error evaluation with three-dimensional digitized measure, tool path generation strategy for enhancing machining efficiency and controlling deviation in NC machining, tool path generation and NC machining simulation by means of a virtual NC machining environment for blades, and feasible strategy and the systematic scheme for manufacturing of large blades with 5-axis simultaneous CNC machining technology. The developed innovative digital manufacture techniques have been successfully applied in the manufacturing of both the large grade Kaplan and Francis hydraulic turbine blades. It has been shown that the higher efficiency and the better surfaces finish accuracy can be achieved in practical engineering.     

Tool path generation and tolerance analysis for free-form surfaces

This paper focuses on developing algorithms that generate tool paths for free-form surfaces based on the accuracy of a desired manufactured part. A manufacturing part is represented by mathematical curves and surfaces. Using the mathematical representation of the manufacturing part, we generate reliable and near-optimal tool paths as well as cutter location data file for post-processing. This algorithm includes two components. First is the forward-step function that determines the maximum distance, called forward step, between two cutter contact (CC) points with a given tolerance. This function is independent of the surface type and is applicable to all continuous parametric surfaces that are twice differentiable. The second component is the side step function which determines the maximum distance, called side step, between two adjacent tool paths with a given scallop height. This algorithm reduces manufacturing and computing time as well as the CC points while keeping the given tolerance and scallop height in the tool paths. Several parts, for which the CC points are generated using the proposed algorithm, are machined using a three-axes milling machine. As part of the validation process, the tool paths generated during machining are analyzed to compare the machined part and the desired part.     

螺旋锥齿轮端铣加工刀位计算方法

针对螺旋锥齿轮在数控加工中心上加工效率低的问题,提出利用盘状铣刀对螺旋锥齿轮进行端铣的加工方法.由螺旋锥齿轮齿面及刀具的几何特征,调整铣刀与被加工齿面的相对位置,使齿面与刀具包络面的法截面相对法曲率最小,增大切削带宽,同时控制刀轴矢量调整切削深度避免加工干涉.最后将规划的加工刀位转化到数控机床轴上,利用VERICUT进行加工仿真验证该方法的可行性与正确性.     

数控补加工技术的研究与应用

曲面交线、曲面内凹区域及曲面中浅平面的加工是曲面加工的难点。针对曲面加工中的补加工技术进行了详细的理论和工艺分析,对曲面交线、等高线补加工等的刀具轨迹生成算法进行了探讨,并在塑料瓶模具加工中进行了应用。     

Feed speed scheduling method for parts with rapidly varied geometric feature based on drive constraint of NC machine tool

As the existence of rapidly varied geometric feature and during the NC manufacturing process of this kind of parts, the actual moving speed of the workbench of the NC machine tool cannot reach the feed speed set in the NC program timely due to the drive constraint of NC machine tool. Furthermore, the machine tool would vibrate violently with the drive constraint when employing the constant machining parameter to process the parts with rapidly varied geometric feature, which seriously restricts the improvement of processing this kind of parts with high quality and high efficiency. In order to manufacture such parts with high quality and high efficiency, a sub-regional processing method with variable machining parameters is proposed. Firstly, the generation mechanism of the machining error is studied, and its mathematical model is built. Then the change rule of the machining error influenced by the curvature and the NC programmed feed speed is found out. Finally, taking the drive constraint and the machining error requirement into account, the relationship between the programmed feed speed and the curvature is established, and the corresponding programmed feed speeds to different curvatures are obtained. Taking the NC machining of the edge line of spiral microstrip antenna, which is an equiangular spiral, for example, the experiment results show that compared with the machining result with constant machining parameter, the maximum machining error of the sub-regional processing method with variable machining parameters decreases by 35.51% and the average value of the machining error decreases by 46.65%. For another example, the clover rose line is machined and the processing quality is also improved. This study proves that the method distributing the programmed feed speeds based on the curvature variation can improve the machining precision and ensure processing efficiency, and provides an effective method to manufacture parts with rapidly varied geometric feature.     

Corner optimization for pocket machining

The aim of this paper is to propose a pocketing tool path improvement method by adapting the geometry of the tool path to the kinematic performance of high speed machining machine tools. The minimization of the machining time is a major objective, which should be taken into account for the tool path computation. In this way the tool path length can be reduced or the real feedrate increased. The described method proposes modification of the values of the corner radii in order to increase real feedrate. In the same way, this method checks the radial depth of cut variations along the tool path. The computed tool path presents a smaller length and the machine tool produces a higher average feedrate at the same time. In addition, the use of Bspline for the tool path computation is a significant improvement compared with straight lines and circle arcs for the machining time reduction. Several tests are realized on various machine tools in order to quantify the benefits: the proposed method can reduce the machining time by approximately 25% compared with classical tool paths computed using a CAM system.     

An accurate,efficient envelope approach to modeling the geometric deviation of the machined surface for a specific five-axis CNC machine tool

Geometric deviation, defined as the difference between the nominal surface and the simulation model of the machined surface, is the fundamental concern of five-axis tool path planning. Since the machined surface is part of the cutter envelope surface generated by the cutter motion, it is necessary to calculate the envelope surface in order to obtain the geometric deviation. In the stage of tool path planning, current approaches calculate the cutter envelope surface by using the cutter motion along the given tool path. However, the cutter motion of practical machining on a specific five-axis CNC machine tool is different from the given tool path. Moreover, the computation is very challenging when the accurate cutter motion of practical machining is applied to calculate the envelope surface. To overcome these two problems, a geometric envelope approach with two major distinctions is proposed in this paper. First, the envelope surface of the cutter undergoing a general motion is efficiently obtained as a closed-form vector expression. Second, the accurate cutter motion, which is determined by machine kinematic and interpolation scheme in practical machining, can be easily applied to calculate the accurate envelope surface. With the envelope surface, the geometric deviation is calculated to estimate the overcut or undercut in five-axis milling. An example is given to demonstrate the validity of the proposed method.     

基于UG/Open API的齿面侧铣精加工方法研究

将自由曲面的数控加工方法应用于大模数齿面加工中,采用多轴联动侧铣完成最终齿轮表面的精加工。为了使加工中刀具切触点能够与齿面相适应、减小刀具的磨损,利用UG NX的二次开发环境,对齿面加工的走刀轨迹进行控制。仿真结果表明:该方法能够较好地解决齿面加工中切触点固定的问题,有利于延长刀具寿命,提高加工效率。     

对数螺旋锥齿轮数控自动编程与加工研究

介绍一种基于Pro/E NC模块的对数螺旋锥齿轮数控加工自动编程方法。利用在Pro/E中创建的精确三维模型,在Pro/E NC的CAM模块中,通过设置制造参数、加工数据及程序,生成刀具路径,进行仿真加工。然后,利用Pro/E NC后置处理功能,生成数控加工程序,使用德吉玛五轴数控加工中心加工出成品。为实现复杂齿轮或曲面由设计到加工提供了参考。     

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.     

The prediction of dimensional error for sculptured surface productions using the ball-end milling process. Part 1: Chip geometry analysis and cutting force prediction

The study of machining errors caused by tool deflection in the balkend milling process involves four issues, namely the chip geometry, the cutting force, the tool deflection and the deflection sensitivity of the surface geometry. In this paper, chip geometry and cutting force are investigated. The study on chip geometry includes the undeformed radial chip thickness, the chip engagement surface and the relationship between feed boundary and feed angle. For cutting force prediction, a rigid force model and a flexible force model are developed. Instantaneous cutting forces of a machining experiment for two 2D sculptured surfaces produced by the ball-end milling process are simulated using these force models and are verified by force measurements. This information is used in Part 2 of this paper, together with a tool deflection model and the deflection sensitivity of the surface geometry, to predict the machining errors of the machined sculptured surfaces.     

A mathematical model for a short cut of the NC tool path in window-frame operation

A mathematical model is developed in this paper to represent a short cut for generating NC tool paths in window-frame operation. The paths for face milling of flat convex polygon surfaces are considered. The short cut of the tool path is found to be a function of the cutter radius, the position of the starting point, and the magnitude of the vertex angle at the starting point of the path. Combining the concept of a short cut, the length of tool path will be cut down and the machining will be more efficient. An example and some results are adduced to explain and verify the model.     

基于UG&VERICUT整体式叶轮五轴数控加工与仿真

论文研究了整体叶轮的五轴数控加工工艺,在UG中创建叶轮的三维模型,并使用CAM模块分别对叶轮流道面和叶片生成刀具轨迹,经后置处理器生成NC文件.基于VERICUT构建了DOOSAN VMD600五轴加工中心仿真环境,通过模拟整个机床加工过程,验证了数控加工程序和后处理器的正确性,从而缩短生产周期,降低成本.     

Tool deflection and geometrical error compensation by tool path modification

Accuracy of CNC machined components is affected by a combination of error sources such as tool deflection, geometrical deviations of moving axis and thermal distortions of machine tool structures. Some of these errors can be decreased by controlling the machining process and environmental parameters. However other errors like tool deflection and geometrical errors that have a big portion of total error need more sophisticated solutions. Conventional error reduction methods are considered as low efficiency and human dependent methods. Most of recently developed solutions cannot fulfill workshop needs and are limited to research papers. In the present study, machining code modification strategy has been considered as an applicable and effective solution to enhance precise machined components. Appropriate tool deflection estimation model as well as geometrical error analyzing methods have been selected and complementary algorithms for compensation of these errors have been developed. Metal cutting process has been modeled in a 3D simulation environment and implemented in force/deflection calculations. A software has been developed to generate compensated tool path NC program by tracing the initial tool path and compensating deflection/geometry deviations. The new procedure developed in the present work has been validated by machining Spline contours. The results show that using the new method, accuracy of machined features can be improved by about 8-10 times in a single pass.     

Tribological behavior of micro structured surfaces for micro forming tools

Mechanical micro machining processes, like milling and grinding are appropriate technologies for the flexible production of precise molds with complex shapes for metal forming processes. In most cases machining strategies are orientated towards form accuracy of the desired forming tool only. Thus, the generation of tribologically advantageous surfaces is often carried out in subsequent machining steps like honing. In micro scale the subsequent treatment of complex surfaces is very difficult. For that reason it is desirable to create the shape and a suitable surface texture with one tool in one step.This paper is focusing on the comparison of the tribological behavior of polished surfaces with structured surfaces machined by micro milling and micro grinding processes. Micro milling tools and grinding pins with ballend shape are used to create micro structured surfaces. The machining strategy (tool path and line pitch) was varied for both tool types in the same manner. The experiments were carried out on hardened cold working steel using tungsten carbide micro cutters with TiAlN coating and micro grinding pins with an abrasive diamond layer. White light interferometry was used to characterize the machined surfaces and determine the surface parameters. Moreover, a strip drawing test was set up to investigate the tribological behavior of the system consisting of the machined surfaces and thin sheet metals. The results of the strip drawing test suggest a relationship between micro structure and tribological behavior. Finally, the dependencies between machining technology, surface parameters and tribological behavior will be discussed.