Development of 3D Simulation System for Multi-Axis Turn-Mill Machining

Abstract

This paper proposes a 3D simulation system for multi-axis turn-mill machining. With the diversification of technology products, traditional three-axis machining has been unable to meet the needs of existing industries. Multi-axis machining system with high processing efficiency and accuracy has gradually become the mainstream, and is widely used to produce high-value-added products, such as aerospace components and medical devices. Since multi-axis machining hardware is very expensive, how to ensure the generation of correct NC paths and avoid machine collisions from happening become important challenges. In this paper, the triangular mesh model is used to represent the cutter, machine parts and materials. The actual movement of the machine can be simulated after G codes are parsed. For the material removal, taking processing speed into consideration, this paper proposes a hybrid simulation mechanism including 2D intersection, Z-map and Boolean operations. This proposed method can obtain better result in terms of processing efficiency and machining precision. At the same time, collision detection is used to find interference between tools and machines. Using experiments, this paper demonstrates a variety of turn-mill machining examples to verify the feasibility of the proposed method.