Analysis of Generating Motion for Five-Axis Machining Centers

This paper deals with the theoretical investigation of the arrangement of slideways for five-axis machining centers. There is a considerable number of combinations with respect to the five-axis slideways. However, a critical assessment of the possible combinations of slideways has not been performed so far. In this paper, therefore, theoretical investigation of slideways arrangements which can accommodate the five-axis machining center is carried out using the coordinate transforation matrices. In addition to those functional analyses, the method to obtain the theoretical length of slideways, which is necessary for machining a particular workpiece size, is proposed by applying the form-shaping function.