Tool-path planning for rough machining of a cavity by layer-shape analysis

In the manufacture of parts with sculptured cavities from prismatic stock, rough machining usually constitutes most of the machining time owing to the significant difference between the stock and the part shape. When using 2 1/2-D milling or a contour-map approach to do the rough machining, the appropriate selection of tool-path pattern for each cutting layer can significantly reduce rough machining time and hence increase productivity. In this paper, the commonly used toolpath patterns are summarised. A knowledge-based parametric approach for optimising the toolpath pattern of a given cutting layer is proposed. Then, a novel methodology is developed to calculate an arbitrary polygon area and locate the concave cavities in the polygon. Procedures for cutting-layer-shape analysis and the optimal comprehensive tool-path pattern generation are also built and proposed in this paper. These procedures can not only be applied to sculptured cavity parts with simple islands, but also to parts with arbitrarily-shaped islands. Finally, an example is given to illustrate the reasoning process.