An epitrochoidal pocket—A new canned cycle for CNC milling machines

A machining strategy for milling a particular set of pockets with epitrochoidal boundary is proposed. The method is suitable to be integrated into the controller of a CNC milling machine and is particularly useful for machining chambers of rotary internal combustion engines (Wankel), rotary piston pumps and generally epitrochoidal-shaped housings. Motion generation is achieved by an algorithm which utilizes real-time CNC interpolation providing the highest possible accuracy, of which the milling machine is capable. The surface quality is controlled by applying roughing and finishing passes. The whole machining task can be programmed in a single block of the part program. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by simulation tests of the generated tool path.