Abstract
Abstract Modern tools for designing and manufacturing of large components with complex geometries allow more flexible production with reduced cycle times. This is achieved through a combination of traditional subtractive approaches and new additive manufacturing processes. The problem of generating optimum tool-paths to perform specific actions (e.g. part manufacturing or inspection) on curved surface samples, through numerical control machinery or robotic manipulators, will be increasingly encountered. Part variability often precludes using original design CAD data directly for toolpath generation (especially for composite materials), instead surface mapping software is often used to generate tessellated models. However, such models differ from precise analytical models and are often not suitable to be used in current commercially available path-planning software, since they require formats where the geometrical entities are mathematically represented thus introducing approximation errors which propagate into the generated toolpath. This work adopts a fundamentally different approach to such surface mapping and presents a novel Mesh Following Technique (MFT) for the generation of tool-paths directly from tessellated models. The technique does not introduce any approximation and allows smoother and more accurate surface following tool-paths to be generated. The background mathematics to the new MFT algorithm are introduced and the algorithm is validated by testing through an application example. Comparative metrology experiments were undertaken to assess the tracking performance of the MFT algorithms, compared to tool-paths generated through commercial software. It is shown that the MFT tool-paths produced 40% smaller errors and up to 66% lower dispersion around the mean values. Highlights This work presents a technique for generation of tool-paths from tessellated models. The technique does not introduce approximations to surface following tool-paths. Comparative metrology experiments were carried out to assess the technique. The technique produces smaller errors and lower dispersion around the mean values. The developed method is aligned with the growing use of surface mapping techniques.
Highlights
Modern Computer-Aided Design (CAD) is used extensively in composite manufacture
When working directly from available Computer Aided Design (CAD) models, there are a large number of Off-Line Programming (OLP) software packages available commercially that satisfy the requirements for such toolpath generation (e.g. MasterCAMÒ, DelcamÒ, DelmiaÒ)
This paper presents a novel algorithm based on a Mesh Following Technique (MFT) for the generation of tool-paths from Standard Tessellation Language (STL) models, suitable to overcome the difficulties encountered with current software applications that rarely support tessellated models as the input format for their embedded path-planning options
Summary
Modern Computer-Aided Design (CAD) is used extensively in composite manufacture. Where it was once necessary to construct large items from many smaller parts, Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM) allows these large items to be produced from one piece of raw material C. Mineo et al / Journal of Computational Design and Engineering 4 (2017) 192–202 manufacturing, compared to conventional light alloy materials, where the use of surface mapping metrology is required, even when the original CAD model is available. Mineo et al / Journal of Computational Design and Engineering 4 (2017) 192–202 manufacturing, compared to conventional light alloy materials, where the use of surface mapping metrology is required, even when the original CAD model is available This situation can arise due to the inherent process variability associated with composites manufacture. These effects present a significant challenge for the execution of successive production operations When considering such parts, surface mapping leads, through the collection of point cloud data, to the generation of meshed CAD models of the parts (Fabio, 2003). This paper presents a novel algorithm based on a Mesh Following Technique (MFT) for the generation of tool-paths from STL models, suitable to overcome the difficulties encountered with current software applications that rarely support tessellated models as the input format for their embedded path-planning options
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