Feedrate scheduling strategy for free-form surface machining through an integrated geometric and mechanistic model

In free-form surface machining, it is essential to optimize the feedrate in order to improve the machining efficiency. Conservative constant feedrate values have been mostly used up to now since there was a lack of physical models and optimization tools for the machining processes. The overall goal of this research is the integration of geometric and mechanistic milling models for force prediction and feedrate scheduling in five-axis CNC free-form surface machining. For each tool move, the geometric model calculates the cut geometry, and a mechanistic model is used along with a maximum allowable cutting force to determine a desired feedrate. The results are written into the part NC program with optimized feedrates. When the integrated modeling approach based feedrate scheduling strategy introduced in this paper was used, it was shown that the machining time can be decreased significantly along the tool path.