Computer controlled brilliant cutting of flat glass

Brilliant cutting is a grinding process used to cut and polish decorative patterns into flat glass. It is a labour intensive process and essentially requires a skilled cutter to present a sheet of flat glass to a grinding wheel. Manual manipulation of the glass is then used to enable the grinding wheel to cut the desired pattern into the glass. This paper describes a CAD/CAM system which has been developed to replace this manual process. The basic design concept involved allowing a grinding wheel to move whilst keeping the workpiece stationary. Fiveaxis manipulation of the grinding wheel was required to ensure that a wide range of decorative shapes could be successfully generated and CNC part programs were developed from 2D drawing data.