Cutter orientation determination in five-axis milling with a fillet-end cutter

Abstract

In multi-axis milling, cutter orientation is an important factor to determine the resulted machining quality and efficiency. This paper presents a new method to determine feasible cutter orientations for sculptured surface milling with a fillet-end cutter on a 5-axis machine. Four kinds of constraints are considered in the method: (1) the machine axis limit; (2) local gouging; (3) rear gouging; (4) global collision. An exact geometry analysis method based on the comparison between the local part and cutter surfaces is developed to avoid the local gouging due to curvature mismatch. By considering the exact geometry of the fillet-end cutter, the detection and correction algorithms are then presented to obtain the feasible cutter orientation range for gouging-free milling and global collision. Different from previous research to approximate a fillet-end cutter as a flat-end one in cutter orientation adjustment from rear gouging and collision problems, the developed method offers more accuracy and flexibility. And due to no consideration of feeding direction in the developed algorithms, the method could be used for automated cutter selection and for planning its tool path to produce high cutting efficiency. An example is given to show efficacy of the algorithm. © Professional Engineering Publishing 2004.