Contour-parallel offset machining for trimmed surfaces based on conformal mapping with free boundary

Abstract

The parametric surfaces of some manufactured parts are often subjected to the Boolean operation of other objects; generating suitable NC tool paths from such trimmed surface remains a challenge. This paper presents a new planar development-based method to generate contour-parallel offset paths of trimmed surfaces. To avoid direct frequent identifications and removals of interferences of offset curves on 3D-trimmed surface possibly with multiple holes or restricted regions, the original surface is flattened in the plane domain using a two-stage approach which consists of conformal mapping with free boundary and further nonlinear accuracy improvement. Then, sequent offsets of the boundary curves of the planar region are generated, and the global interferences are detected and removed using an efficient and robust divide-and-conquer strategy. Based on a tree data structure, a tool-path linking algorithm is also given with less or no tool retractions, and subsequently, the resulting planar paths are inversely mapped to the physical space. Illustrated examples have been conducted to testify the affectivity and the applicability of the proposed contour-parallel offset machining method.