Experimental Study of Tool Path Strategies for Three and Five axes Milling along with Feed Rate Optimization

Abstract

Objectives: Nowadays, owning to the growth of industries, precise, rapid and efficient production of the parts with complex surfaces seems to be essential. Methods: In numerical control machine tools, the choice of tool path strategy in computer-aided manufacturing software plays an important role in determining the distance of tool movement, the collision between the tool and the work piece and the number of axes used in each stage of the machining operation. Optimal selection of tool path and its peripheral settings can cause dramatic changes in the improvement of time and the increase of machining operation precision. Results: This research aims at evaluating different tool path strategies in multi-axes machining in order to select the best strategies in different situations. In this regard, Power Mill software, as computer-aided manufacturing software is used to investigate different tool path strategies of three-axes and fiveaxis milling. These strategies were implemented on different models and, then, machining operation and optimization of NC programs were simulated in Vericut software. Finally, after performing three-axis machining experimental tests and simulating three-axis and five-axis machining, different tool path strategies were compared in terms of machining time and the average residual load per unit area. Then, according to the results, the optimal strategy for each geometric model was selected based on different machining conditions. Conclusion: Evaluations show that variable and optimized feed rate in different tool path strategies makes their machining time closer to each other.