Automatic Tool Selection and Path Generation for NC Rough Cutting of Sculptured Surface

자유곡면의 NC 황삭가공을 위한 자동 공구 선정과 경로 생성

An efficient algorithm is proposed to select the proper tools and generate their paths for NC rough cutting of dies and molds with sculptured surfaces. Even though a milling process consists of roughing, semi-finishing, and finishing, most material is removed by a rough cutting process. Therfore it can be said that the rough cutting process occupy an important portion of the NC milling process, and accordingly, an efficient rough cutting method contributes to an efficient milling process. In order work, the following basic assumption is accepted for the efficient machining. That is, to machine a region bounded by a profile, larger tools should be used in the far inside and the region adjacent to relatively simple portion of the boundary while smaller tools are used in the regions adjacent to the relatively complex protion. Thus the tools are selected based on the complexity of the boundary profile adjacent to the region to be machined. An index called cutting path ratio is proposed in this work as a measure of the relative complexity of the profile with respect to a tool diameter. Once the tools are selected, their tool paths are calculated starting from the largest to the smallest tool.