• Korean Journal of Computational Design and Engineering
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.382-390
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• 2008

Five-axis machining has been applied to manufacture of turbine blades, impellers, marine propellers. Nowadays it extends to mold & die machining, where more productivity as well as added value is expected. The five-axis machining can be divided into positional and continuous, according to the variableness of tool orientation during material removal process. The positional five-axis machining is commonly applied to the regional machining on a whole part surface in mold manufacturing industry, where the tool orientation for each region (area) should be determined to be feasible, that is, avoiding any interference such as machine tool collision, etc. Therefore it is required for a CAM programmer to decide a feasible tool orientation in generating tool-paths on a designated area, because it is a very tedious job to obtain such information by utilizing a commercial CAM system. The developed system generates feasibility data on tool orientation and machining region, which facilitates the CAM programmer's decision on a feasible tool orientation.

• Korean Journal of Computational Design and Engineering
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.354-361
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• 2010

The paper presents an efficient computation of optimal tool length for 5-axis mold & die machining. The implemented procedure processes an NC file as an initial input, where the NC data is generated by another commercial CAM system. A commercial CAM system generates 5-axis machining NC data which, in its own way, is optimal based on pre-defined machining condition such as tool-path pattern, tool-axis control via inclination angles, etc. The proper tool-length should also be provided. The tool-length should be as small as possible in order to enhance machinability as well as surface finish. A feasible tool-length at each NC block can be obtained by checking interference between workpiece and tool components, usually when the tool-axis is not modified at this stage for most CAM systems. Then the minimum feasible tool-length for an NC file consisting of N blocks is the maximum of N tool-length values. However, it can be noted that slight modification of tool-axis at each block may reduce the minimum feasible tool-length in mold & die machining. This approach can effectively be applied in machining feature regions such as steep wall or deep cavity. It has been implemented and is used at a molding die manufacturing company in Korea.

• Korean Journal of Computational Design and Engineering
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.422-428
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• 2006

In this paper, an NC data optimization approach for enhancing 5-axis machining speed is presented. It is usual to use expensive commercial CAD/CAM programs for NC data of 5-axis machining, since it needs very large calculations for optimal tool positioning and orientation, tool path planning, and collision-free tool path generation. Since commercial CAD/CAM systems have similar functions and efficiency based on common algorithms of reliable theories, they do not have their own unique features for machining speed and efficiency. In other words, most commercial CAD/CAM systems consider only the characteristics of part geometry to be machined, which means that they generate almost the same NC data if the part to be machined is the same, even though different machines are used for the pin. A new approach is proposed for optimizing NC data of 5-axis machining, which is based on the characteristics of the machine to be operated. As a result, the speed of 5-axis machining can increase without losing machining accuracy and surface quality.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.684-690
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• 2010

A drum cam with rotational follower has a cam mechanism and it is mainly used in its application such as index table and ATC of machine tool. Also its use can reduce the backlash in its kinematic movement. To machine the drum cam with rotational follower, 5-axis CNC machine tool is generally used and its kinematic principle is included in it's design. Until now, the commercialized CAM software can't cover the application of the drum cam machining. Even if, some special software was developed for machining a drum cam, the post processing method for finish machining was not developed yet. And to overcome the problem, the form tool is still used on the tool path of rough machining. This study includes the induction of the post processing technique for the finish machining of drum cam on three 5-axis CNC machine tools, type AC, AB and BC. To prove the finishing geometric profile, the result was clearly verified through inspection and geometric measurement after direct machining of the drum cam in AC type 5-axis machine tool in this study.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Machine Tool Engineers
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.53-58
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• 2006

This study deals with the method of post-processing in the automatic tool path generation for 5-axis NC machining. The 5-axis NC machining cannot only cope with the manufacturing of complicated shapes, but also offers numerous advantages such as reasonable tool employment, great reduction of set-up process and so on. Thus 5-axis NC machining has been used for aircraft parts, mold and die as well as for complicated shapes such as impeller, propeller and rotor. However, most of the present CAM systems for 5-axis NC machining have limited functions in terms of tool collision, machine limits and post-processing. Especially 5-axis machine configurations are various according to the method which the rotational axes are adapted with the table and spindle. For that reason, In many cases the optimal numerical control (NC) data cannot be obtained or considerable time is consumed. To solve this problem, we applied a general post-processor for 5-axis NC machining. The validity of this post-processor should be experimentally confirmed by successfully milling to a helix shaped workpiece.

• Korean Journal of Computational Design and Engineering
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.393-402
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• 2000

Recently 5-axis NC machines are widely used in Korea. Since 5-axis machines have two more degrees of freedom than 3-axis machines, it is very important to find desirable tool positions(locations and orientations) in order to make an efficient use of expensive 5-axis NC machines. In this research an algorithm to determine “optimal” tool positions for 5-axis machining of sculptured surfaces is developed. For given CC(Cutter Contact) points, this algorithm determines the cutter axis vectors which minimize cusp heights and satisfy constraints. To solve the optimal problem, we deal with following major issues: (1) an approximation method of a cusp height as a measure of optimality (2) Identifying some properties of the optimal problem (3) a search method for the optimal points using the properties. By using a polyhedral model as a machining surface, this algorithm applies to sculptured surfaces covering: overhanged surface.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.83-90
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• 2004

This paper proposes a tool path generation method for machining impellers with 5-axis machining center. The shape of impeller is complex, being composed of pressure surface, suction surface and leading edge, and so on. The compound surface which is made of ruled surface such as pressure surface and suction surface and leading edge such as fillet surface, makes the tool path generation much complicated. To achieve efficient roughing, cutting area is divided into two region and then tool radius of maximum size that do not cause tool intereference is selected for shortening machining time. In finishing, accuracy is improved using side cutting for blade surface and point milling for leading edge.

• Korean Journal of Computational Design and Engineering
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.69-77
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• 2001

This paper describes a method of calculating the feedrate for the constant cutting speed at a CL-point in 5-axis machining. Unlike 3-axis machining, 5-axis machining has the flexibility of the tool motions due to two rotation axes. But the feedrate at joint space differs from the feedrate at a tool tip(the CL-point) of the 3D Euclidean space for the tool motions. The proposed algorithm adjusts the feedrate based on 5-axis NC data, the kinematics of a machine, and the tool length. The following calculations is processed for each NC block to generate the new feedrate; 1) calculating the moving distance at the CL-point, 2) calculating the moving time by the given feedrate, 3) calculating the feedrate of each axis, 4) getting the new feedrate. The proposed algorithm was applied to a 5-axis machine which had a tilting spindle and a rotary table. Totally, the result of the algorithm reduced the machining time and smoothed the cutting-load by the constant cutting speed at the CL-point.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.27 no.8
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• pp.48-53
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• 2010

5-axis CNC machining now is getting popular because it can deal with complex shapes such as impeller, turbine blade and propeller without additional equipment or process, proving a set of various tool orientations. CAM software related to 5-axis machining is being developed quickly so that users can take advantage of potential capacities of 5-axis machine tools. However, only a few researches can be found in the area of control strategy development for 5-axis machining. This paper proposes a 5-axis cross-coupling control system based on a novel tool orientation error model. The proposed tool orientation error model provides accurate information on the tool orientation error in real time, which in turn enables directly controlling the tool orientation accuracy. The proposed control system also employs a contour error model to calculate the contour error and reflect it in the control as well. The accuracy of the proposed tool orientation error model is verified and the performance of the 5-axis cross-coupling control system in terms of both contouring and tool orientation accuracy is evaluated through computer simulations compared with existing 5-axis control systems.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Machine Tool Engineers
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.63-69
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• 2007

The high speed machining has been widely applied to manufacture dies and machine elements in industrial field. Especially, 5-axis milling has been employed to produce a wide range of turbine blades, impellers and complex molds. In this study, the machining characteristics of injection molds were investigated according to tool tilting angles in 5-axis milling. The cutting force and surface roughness were investigated with various tool tilting angles. When the tool tilting angle was over than 10 degree, the characteristics of cutting force and surface roughness were improved in machining of Al alloy.