타이어 사이드판의 문자 가공을 위한 4축 가공 시스템

A 4-axis NC Lettering System for the Side-wall of the Automobile Tire

The letters of the automobile tire are usually engraved on the side-wall. The shape of the side-wall is a sculptured surface generated by the rotational sweeping of a profile curve. The letters laid on the side-wall are usually designed by a 2-dimensional CAD. It is impossible to machine the letters on the surface accurately by 3-axis NC machining, because the axis of cutter should be tilted to align with the normal vector of the surface. In this case. the degree of freedom for the machine is at least four. This paper describes an idea for tool path generation of a 4-axis machine by using the 2-dimensional CAD data of the letters and the surface of the side-wall. This study includes the following procedures; (1) measuring the profile of the side-wall surface and curve-fitting of the measured points. (2) the 'non-parallel projection' of the letters on the side-wall, and (3) an inverse kinematics of the 4-axis lettering machine. Procedures in this paper are programmed in C-language on Windows95 environment. With a PC based CNC controller and a 4-axis lettering machine. these are tested sucessfully for the practical use.