Spiral cutting operation strategy for machining of sculptured surfaces by conformal map approach

Although compound surfaces and polyhedral models are widely used in manufacturing industry, the tool path planning strategies are very limited for such surfaces in five-axis machining and high speed machining. In this paper, a novel conformal map based and planar spiral guided spiral tool path generation method is described for NC machining of complex surfaces. The method uses conformal map to establish a relationship between 3D physical surface and planar circular region. This enables NC operation to be performed as if the surface is plat. Then through inversely mapping a planar spiral defined by a mathematical function into 3D physical space, the spiral cutter contact paths are derived without inheriting any corners on the boundary in the subsequent interior paths. The main advantage of the proposed method is that a smoother, longer and boundary conformed spiral topography tool path is developed. Therefore, the machined surface can be cut continuously with minimum tool retractions during the cutting operations. And it allows both compound surfaces and triangular surfaces can be machined at high speed. Finally, experimental results are given to testify the proposed approach. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.