Generation of NC Commands for Sculptured Surface Machining from 3-Coordinate Measuring Data

Summary A system to generate the geometric information needed for NC machining of a sculptured surface is presented. In this system the geometric model of a sculptured surface is generated in the computer from 3-coordinate measuring data of a solid model made of clay, wood, or plastics. To describe the sculptured surface mathematically, Hasaka's method for a Bezier surface is used. A cutter path for NC machining is generated from the geometric model of the surface. Some experiments were performed to measure a sculptured surface by use of a NC 3-coordinate measuring machine and also to generate the geometric model of the surface. Geometric information for NC machining was produced and the machining was successfully carried out.