Five-axis toolpath planning for aero-integral blisk cavities

Abstract

Integral blisks generally made of high-temperature alloys (such as titanium alloys) are important components in aero-engines. During machining, the tool load is large and the tool wear is serious. Because trochoidal milling can maintain a small contact angle between the tool and the workpiece during the cutting process, it is widely used in the processing of complex aviation blisks. However, when the traditional U-shaped trochoidal toolpath or the maximum inscribed trochoidal toolpath is applied, there are high cutting vibration and low efficiency. Therefore, this paper proposes a new five-axis trochoidal side milling strategy, which is suitable for machining more complex three-dimensional cavities by adjusting the shape of the inscribed arc. Different from the traditional trochoidal pattern, the proposed method can generate a spatial UV parameter line-based tool path from a given complex 3D cavity and map it to the machining surface. In addition, a scheme to optimize the tool orientation of the boundary tool is proposed, so that the machine tool motion axis can run smoothly, thus the blisk can be roughened efficiently. Finally, the proposed schemes are verified by computer simulation and physical cutting experiments, and results show the validity and effectiveness.