Design of a generic five-axis postprocessor based on generalized kinematics model of machine tool

This paper presents a generic five-axis postprocessor system for various five-axis machine tools. The generalized kinematics model of common five-axis machines is constructed by combining two rotational degrees of freedom on the fixture table and two rotational degrees of freedom on the spindle. The complete analytical equations for NC data are obtained through homogeneous coordinate transformation matrix and inverse kinematics. The derived five-axis NC code expression is a general form suitable for all kinds of five-axis machine tools with three orthogonal linear axes and two orthogonal rotational axes. A window-based postprocessor software written by Borland C + + Builder and OpenGL has been developed according to the presented algorithm. The wireframe model of the configured five-axis machine tool can be promptly shown and rotated/zoomed dynamically on the screen to assist the user to input relevant parameters correctly and efficiently. Through the implementation of the developed postprocessor and the verification by the solid cutting simulation software as well as the real machining experiment, the effectiveness of the proposed scheme was confirmed. (C) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.