Rapid Removal Volume Acquisition for Tool Posture Decision in 3+2-Axis Control Milling

Abstract

In 3+2-axis control milling, it is difficult to determine effective tool posture automatically. In this study, a rapid acquisition method of material removal volume is proposed for process planning. Material removal volume is an important factor to determine effective tool posture for realizing high efficient milling. In the proposed method, workpiece shape, product shape and tooling shape are represented by using the voxel representation for calculating the discrete cross correlation function. The offset surface is generated on the boundary of the existence of the similarity between product shape and tooling shape. Tooling swept area is calculated as the convolution of the tooling shape. Consequently, material removal volume and unmachined volume are obtained based on product shape, workpiece shape and tooling swept area. The computation load of the acquisition method is independent of the complexity of the product shape, tooling shape and tool posture. The respective removal volume in different tool posture can be simply evaluated. The effectiveness of the removal volume acquisition method is confirmed in conducted case studies.

Keywords

• process planning
• 3+2-axis control milling
• tool posture
• removal volume
• voxel representation