Newton’s method based collision avoidance in a CAD environment on ball nut grinding

Abstract

This article presents a method based on numerical computations for collision avoidance between the toolholder (quill) and workpiece in ball nut grinding in a CAD environment. Besides collision avoidance, the procedure is capable of determining the proper grinding angle with the prescribed safety gap between the toolholder and workpiece. Maple mathematical software is used for the numerical computations with Newton–Raphson, simplified Newton’s method, and built-in Maple fsolve command. The assembly model of the grinding environment was prepared with a Siemens PLM NX system. The interoperation between the assembly model of the CAD system and the mathematical software (parameter transfer and retrieving) was performed by the Maple NX CAD package. The procedures were analyzed for different tool holder and ball nut dimensions, and results demonstrate that it is possible to perform accurate manufacturing parameter specification in an interactive way.