Development of a CAM Software for Hole Machining of Dies

금형의 구멍가공을 위한 CAM 소프트웨어 개발

There are many types of holes to be machined on dies manufactured in the car industry. In this paper we introduce a CAM software developed for hole machining of press dies. The CAM software automatically generates NC files for machining holes from CAD data modeled in the CATIA system. A procedure generating NC files consists of three steps. First, the geometric information such as types of holes, hole positions, hole diameters, and hole depths is extracted from CATIA models. And then tools to be used and operation orders are standardized to establish a data base. Finally, NC files are generated by considering the machining conditions such as feedrate and rpm. It is efficient that holes with the same type and the same size should be grouped and machined by a tool to reduce the tool change time. The optimal tool path for machining the holes in a group can be determined by applying an algorithm solving the traveling salesman problem.