• Journal of Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.123-137
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• 1993

In this paper, an integrated approach is proposed to generate gouging-free Cartesian tool paths for machining sculptured surfaces from 3D measurement data. The integrated CAD/CAM system consists of two modules : offset surface module an Carteian tool path module. The offset surface module generates an offset surface of an object from its 3D measurement data, using an offsetting method and a surface fitting method. The offsetting is based on the idea that the envelope of an inversed tool generates an offset surface without self-intersection as the center of the inversed tool moves along on the surface of an object. The surface-fitting is the process of constructing a compact representation to model the surface of an object based on a fairly large number of data points. The resulting offset surtace is a composite Bezier surface without self-intersection. When an appropriate tool-approach direction is selected, the tool path module generates the Cartesian tool paths while the deviation of the tool paths from the surface stays within the user-specified tolerance. The tool path module is a two-step process. The first step adaptively subdivides the offset surface into subpatches until the thickness of each subpatch is small enough to satisfy the user-defined tolerance. The second step generates the Cartesian tool paths by calculating the intersection of the slicing planes and the adaptively subdivided subpatches. This tool path generation approach generates the gouging-free Cartesian CL tool paths, and optimizes the cutter movements by minimizing the number of interpolated points.

• International Journal of CAD/CAM
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.51-60
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• 2007

This paper presents an algorithm of optimal cutting tool selection for machining of the point-based surface that is defined by a set of surface points rather than parametric polynomial surface equations. As the ball-end and fillet-end mills are generally used for finish machining in a 3-axis computer numerical control machine, the algorithm is applicable for both cutters. The optimum tool would be as large as possible in terms of the cutter radius and/or corner radius which maximise (s) the material removal rate (i.e., minimise (s) the machining time), while still being able to machine the entire point-based surface without gouging any surface point. The gouging are two types: local and global. In this paper, the distance between the cutter bottom and surface points is used to check the local gouging whereas the shortest distance between the surface points and cutter axis is effectively used to check the global gouging. The selection procedure begins with a cutter from the tool library, which has the largest cutter radius and/or corner radius, and then adequacy of the point-density is checked to limit the accuracy of the cutter selection for the point-based surface within tolerance prior to the gouge checking. When the entire surface is gouge-free with a chosen cutting tool then the tool becomes the optimum cutting tool for a list of cutters available in the tool library. The effectiveness of the algorithm is demonstrated considering two examples.

• International Journal of CAD/CAM
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.19-27
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• 2005

As three-dimensional range scanners make large point clouds a more common initial representation of real world objects, a need arises for algorithms that can efficiently process point sets. In this paper, we present a method for extracting smooth surfaces from dense point clouds. Given an unorganized set of points in space as input, our algorithm first uses principal component analysis to estimate the surface variation at each point. After defining conditions for determining the geometric compatibility of a point and a surface, we examine the points in order of increasing surface variation to find points whose neighborhoods can be closely approximated by a single surface. These neighborhoods become seed regions for region growing. The region growing step clusters points that are geometrically compatible with the approximating surface and refines the surface as the region grows to obtain the best approximation of the largest number of points. When no more points can be added to a region, the algorithm stores the extracted surface. Our algorithm works quickly with little user interaction and requires a fraction of the memory needed for a standard mesh data structure. To demonstrate its usefulness, we show results on large point clouds acquired from real-world objects.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.27 no.11
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• pp.1958-1966
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• 2003

Three-axis CNC surface machining entails a series of processes including rough cutting, intermediate cutting and finish cutting for a reference surface defined in CAD/CAM. This study is targeting development of an integrated NURBS surface interpolator that can incorporate rough, intermediate and finish cutting processes. In each process, volume to be removed and cutting condition are different according to the shape of a part to be machined and the reference surface. Accordingly, the proposed NURBS surface interpolator controls motion in real-time optimized for the machining conditions of each process. In this paper, a newly defined set of G-codes is proposed such that NURBS surface machining through CNC is feasible with minimal information on the surface composition. To verify the usefulness of the proposed interpolator, through computer simulations on NURBS surface machining, total machining time, size of required NC data and cutting force variations are compared with the existing method.

• Korean Journal of Computational Design and Engineering
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.129-136
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• 2009

Generally, curved surfaces of ship hull are deformed by flame bending (line heating), multi-press forming, and die-less forming method. The forming methods generate the required in-plane/bending strain or displacement on the flat plate to make the curved surface. Multi-press forming imposes the forced displacements on the flat plate by controlling the position of each pressing points based upon the shape difference between the unfolded flat plate and the curved object shape. The flat plate has been obtained from the unfolding system that is independent of the ship CAD. Apparently, the curved surface and the unfolded-flat surface are expressed by different coordinate systems. Therefore, one of the issues is to find a registration of the unfolded surface and the curved shape for the purpose of minimum amount of forming works by comparing the two surfaces. This paper presents an efficient algorithm to get an optimized registration of two different surfaces in the multi-press forming of ship hull plate forming. The algorithm is based upon the ICP (Iterative Closest Point) algorithm. The algorithm consists of two iterative procedures including a transformation matrix and the closest points to minimize the distance between the unfolded surface and curved surfaces. Thereby the algorithm allows the minimized forming works in ship-hull forming.

• International Journal of CAD/CAM
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.31-40
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• 2007

Reverse engineering of reliefs aims to turn an existing relief superimposed on an underlying surface into a geometric model which may be applied to a different base surface. Steps in this process include segmenting the relief from the background, and describing it as an offset height field relative to the underlying surface. We have previously considered relief segmentation using a geometric snake. Here, we show how to use this initial segmentation to estimate the background surface lying under the relief, which can be used (i) to refine the segmentation and (ii) to express the relief as an offset field. Our approach fits a B-spline surface patch to the measured background data surrounding the relief, while tension terms ensure this background surface smoothly continues underneath the relief where there are no measured background data points to fit. After making an initial estimate of relief offset height everywhere within the patch, we use a support vector machine to refine the segmentation. Tests demonstrate that this approach can accurately model the background surface where it underlies the relief, providing more accurate segmentation, as well as relief height field estimation. In particular, this approach provides significant improvements for relief concavities with narrow mouths and can segment reliefs with small internal holes.

• International Journal of CAD/CAM
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.47-53
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• 2004

The subdivision surface is the limit of recursively refined polyhedral mesh. It is quite intuitive that the multi-resolution feature can be utilized to simplify generation of NC (Numerical Control) tool paths for rough machining. In this paper, a new method of parallel NC tool path generation for subdivision surfaces is presented. The basic idea of the method includes two steps: first, extending G-Buffer to a strip buffer (called S-Buffer) by dividing the working area into strips to generate NC tool paths for objects of large size; second, generating NC tool paths by parallel implementation of S-Buffer based on MPI (Message Passing Interface). Moreover, the recursion depth of the surface can be estimated for a user-specified error tolerance, so we substitute the polyhedral mesh for the limit surface during rough machining. Furthermore, we exploit the locality of S-Buffer and develop a dynamic division and load-balanced strategy to effectively parallelize S-Buffer.

• Korean Journal of Computational Design and Engineering
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.253-266
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• 1997

Pencil-curve machining, which is a single-pass ball-end milling along a concave edge on adie surface, is widely employed in die-surface machining. The cutter-path used for pencil-curve machining, which is the trajectory of the “ball-center point” of a ball-endmill sliding along a concave-edge region on the die surface, is called pencil-curve. Presented in the paper is a pencil-curve tracing algorithm in which “concave-type” sharp edges are computed from a “virtually digitized” model of the tool-envelope surface. The resulting “initial” pencil-cures are then refuted by applying a series of fairing operations. illustrative examples and methods for enhancing accuracy are also presented. The proposed pencil-curve tracing algorithm has been successfully implemented in a commercial CAM system specialized in die-machining and in the CAD/CAM system CATIA.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Machine Tool Engineers Conference
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• 1997.10a
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• pp.230-234
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• 1997

Reverse engineering involves digitizing a three-dimensional model or part converting the data to a CAD database description and manufacturing by CNC. Currently, the digitization is done through measurements taken manually by a CMM or touch probe mounted on a CNC machinetool. Some reverse engineering techniques require close integration between the data collection method and the surface-fitting algorithms. Accurate surface data are collected by input to the surface fitting method. This study has been found that both the smoothness of surfaces and accuracy of surface fitting are related with the degree of the interpolated surfaces.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2001.04a
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• pp.1085-1088
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• 2001

The process of styrofoam pattern that has been used for material of press die pattern depends chiefly on handwork. Laser manufacturing system developed to increase precision and efficiency of process that is also able to convert the design easily. Applying the RP(rapid prototyping) concept reversely, the unnecessary part of section is vapored away by heat source of laser beam after converting 3-D CAD model into cross-sectional shape information. Laser beam is line-scanned in plane specimens to measure the depth and width of cut, surface roughness, cross-sectional shape as converting laser power, scanning speed, cutting gas pressure. With these basic data, plane surface, inclined surface, hole, outer contour trimming process is experimented and optimum condition are obtained. In plane and inclined surface experiments, 15W laser power and 50mm/s scanning speed make superior processing property and 30W, 10mm/s make processing efficiency increase in trimming process. With these results, simple patterns were manufactured and the possibility of applying laser manufacturing system to styrofoam pattern was convinced.