An Iso-scallop Toolpath aligned with a Flow of Preferred Directions for 5-Axis Machining

Abstract

Five-axis machining that follows the optimal feeding direction (OFD) has gained more attention recently since it can significantly decrease the total machining time while maintaining the surface quality. Even though, the majority of work targets only on parametric surfaces. The iso-scallop tool path is a common efficient machining strategy. However, determining the initial path to obtain an iso-scallop tool path is not an easy task. In this paper, the OFD field of the maximal material removal rate (MMRR) is generated on a triangular mesh. It is then transferred into a 2D parametric domain by a conformal mapping. The OFD is used to construct a discrete orientation field (OF). A tracking algorithm is applied to construct the flow curves which represent a skeleton of the OF. Then an iso-scallop tool path is generated with the initial path being the flow curve characterized by the maximum material removal rate. The proposed tool path strategy is tested against conventional iso-parametric and iso-planar methods. The experiments prove the superiority of the proposed toolpath algorithm in terms of the total machining time and the tool path length.