A machining strategy for toolmaking

Presented in the paper is a strategy for tool-making that enables a series of high-speed machining (HSM) operations to be generated that turn the initial stock into the finished part. The strategy is executed with an ordered series of cutters starting with the largest toroidal roughing cutters and finishing with the smallest finishing ball cutters. For each cutter, the current stock model is compared with the final surface model, to define an area of operation for that cutter. Operations are then scheduled for that cutter to remove all the material it can access within the area of operation, and leave the stock model with a reasonable finish ready for the next cutter. The concept is that the cascade of operations produced by the strategy enables good machining practices to be used throughout the process, and make best use of the advantages offered by HSM. Examples of the application of the strategy in several tool-rooms are presented.

[1]  F. Koenigsberger,et al.  Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Machine Tool Design and Research Conference , 1974 .

[2]  John G. Griffiths,et al.  A new cutter-path topology for milling machines , 1994, Comput. Aided Des..

[3]  J. S. Hwang.  Interference-free tool-path generation in the NC machining of parametric compound surfaces , 1992, Comput. Aided Des..

[4]  Erik D. Goodman,et al.  Direct dimensional NC verification , 1990, Comput. Aided Des..

[5]  Krishnan Suresh,et al.  Constant Scallop-height Machining of Free-form Surfaces , 1994 .

[6]  Les A. Piegl,et al.  Tessellating trimmed surfaces , 1995, Comput. Aided Des..

[7]  Johannes Wallner,et al.  Collision-free 3-axis milling and selection of cutting tools , 1999, Comput. Aided Des..

[8]  Wayne Tiller,et al.  Geometry-based triangulation of trimmed NURBS surfaces , 1998, Comput. Aided Des..

[9]  Byoung Kyu Choi,et al.  Modeling the surface swept by a generalized cutter for NC verification , 1998, Comput. Aided Des..

[10]  K. Kim,et al.  A new machine strategy for sculptured surfaces using offset surface , 1995 .

[11]  Joshua U. Turner,et al.  Review of statistical approaches to tolerance analysis , 1995, Comput. Aided Des..

[12]  Christophe Tournier,et al.  Machining of free-form surfaces and geometrical specifications , 1999 .

[13]  Robert B. Jerard,et al.  Comparison of discretization algorithms for surfaces with application to numerically controlled machining , 1997, Comput. Aided Des..

[14]  Geoffrey W. Vickers.  Computer-aided manufacture of marine propellers , 1977 .

[15]  Robert B. Jerard,et al.  C-space approach to tool-path generation for die and mould machining , 1997, Comput. Aided Des..

[16]  Byoung Kyu Choi,et al.  Compound surface modelling and machining , 1988 .

[17]  Gábor Lukács,et al.  Pocket machining based on contour-parallel tool paths generated by means of proximity maps , 1994, Comput. Aided Des..

[18]  Tien-Chien Chang,et al.  Three-axis machining of compound surfaces using flat and filleted endmills , 1998, Comput. Aided Des..

[19]  Daniel C. H. Yang,et al.  Interference detection and optimal tool selection in 3-axis NC machining of free-form surfaces , 1999, Comput. Aided Des..

[20]  Martin Held,et al.  Voronoi diagrams and offset curves of curvilinear polygons , 1998, Comput. Aided Des..

[21]  Gregory C Loney,et al.  NC machining of free form surfaces , 1987 .