A CAD/CAM concept for High Speed Cutting compatible rough machining in die, mould and pattern manufacturing

Die, mould and pattern manufacturing plays a central role in the production of capital and consumer goods. Ever-shorter product life cycles and the expanding diversity of features require continued cuts in production lead times. Recently, these developments in the market, accompanied by a simultaneous demand for improved quality at a lower cost, are becoming clearly noticeable. Along with the streamlining of organizational structures and advanced technological developments, it is above all the introduction of CAD/CAM software that offers great potential for reducing lead times for components with free surfaces. The role of milling in the integrated process chain of die, mould and pattern manufacturing is steadily gaining importance. This is due to the ongoing further development of milling-machine technology, the cutting tools and their coatings, and of the CAD /CAM systems themselves. Generally speaking, the milling process is divided into the operations of roughing and finishing. For rough milling, efficient machining means high stock-removal rates together with close contour approximation and low tool wear. Rough milling is normally carried out layer by layer, i.e. in a 2.SD machining operation with constant depth per cut because the rate of material removal and process reliability are usually highest when this method is used. High-speed cutting (HSC), which has been the subject of extensive university research for far more than ten years, has meanwhile become established as a finishing process in many companies. However, the application of HSC demands the observance of geometric and, above all, technological constraints. A considerable degree of optimization can be achieved when these constraints are applied to rough milling. In the integrated process chain, the CAD/CAM system performs the task of calculating NC programs based on CAD data which meet the requirements posed by rough and finish machining operations. While general interest was focused on the development of CAM strategies for HSC finish machining, advanced development of technology-oriented CAM modules for upstream roughing operations was neglected. The paper at hand deals with the development of a CAM module for rough-machining complex components in die, mould and pattern manufacturing. It provides an insight into the process-technological demands made on HSC operations and their application in rough machining, from which guidelines and requirements on technologically oriented NC functions for CAM software were derived. These encompass both the complete development of an interactive, dialogue-based user guidance function and the algorithmic conversion of the calculation routines. The concept at hand was almost entirely implemented and integrated in the CAD/CAM system developed by Tebis AG, Germany, which was conceived especially for die, mould and pattern manufacturing and is scheduled for introduction to the free market starting in April 2001

Topological model for machining of parts with complex shapes

Complex shapes are widely used to design products in several industries such as aeronautics, automotive and domestic appliances. Several variations of their curvatures and orientations generate difficulties during their manufacturing or the machining of dies used in moulding, injection and forging. Analysis of several parts highlights two levels of difficulties between three types of shapes: prismatic parts with simple geometrical shapes, aeronautic structure parts composed of several shallow pockets and forging dies composed of several deep cavities which often contain protrusions. This paper mainly concerns High Speed Machining (HSM) of these dies which represent the highest complexity level because of the shapes' geometry and their topology. Five axes HSM is generally required for such complex shaped parts but 3 axes machining can be sufficient for dies. Evolutions in HSM CAM software and machine tools lead to an important increase in time for machining preparation. Analysis stages of the CAD model particularly induce this time increase which is required for a wise choice of cutting tools and machining strategies. Assistance modules for prismatic parts machining features identification in CAD models are widely implemented in CAM software. In spite of the last CAM evolutions, these kinds of CAM modules are undeveloped for aeronautical structure parts and forging dies. Development of new CAM modules for the extraction of relevant machining areas as well as the definition of the topological relations between these areas must make it possible for the machining assistant to reduce the machining preparation time. In this paper, a model developed for the description of complex shape parts topology is presented. It is based on machining areas extracted for the construction of geometrical features starting from CAD models of the parts. As topology is described in order to assist machining assistant during machining process generation, the difficulties associated with tasks he carried out are analyzed at first. The topological model presented after is based on the basic geometrical features extracted. Topological relations which represent the framework of the model are defined between the basic geometrical features which are gathered afterwards in macro-features. Approach used for the identification of these macro-features is also presented in this paper. Detailed application on the construction of the topological model of forging dies is presented in the last part of the paper

Manufacturability analysis for non-feature-based objects

This dissertation presents a general methodology for evaluating key manufacturability indicators using an approach that does not require feature recognition, or feature-based design input. The contributions involve methods for computing three manufacturability indicators that can be applied in a hierarchical manner. The analysis begins with the computation of visibility, which determines the potential manufacturability of a part using material removal processes such as CNC machining. This manufacturability indicator is purely based on accessibility, without considering the actual machine setup and tooling. Then, the analysis becomes more specific by analyzing the complexity in setup planning for the part; i.e. how the part geometry can be oriented to a cutting tool in an accessible manner. This indicator establishes if the part geometry is accessible about an axis of rotation, namely, whether it can be manufactured on a 4th-axis indexed machining system. The third indicator is geometric machinability, which is computed for each machining operation to indicate the actual manufacturability when employing a cutting tool with specific shape and size. The three manufacturability indicators presented in this dissertation are usable as steps in a process; however they can be executed alone or hierarchically in order to render manufacturability information. At the end of this dissertation, a Multi-Layered Visibility Map is proposed, which would serve as a re-design mechanism that can guide a part design toward increased manufacturability

Introducing a novel mesh following technique for approximation-free robotic tool path trajectories

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

A New Contour Reconstruction Approach from Dexel Data in Virtual Sculpting

This paper presents a novel method of contour reconstruction from dexel data solving the shape anomalies for the complex geometry in virtual sculpting. Grouping and traversing processes are developed to find connectivity between dexels along every two adjacent rays. After traveling through all the rays on one slice, sub-boundaries are connected into full boundaries which are desired contours. The complexity of the new method has been investigated and determined as O(n). We also demonstrate the ability of the described method for viewing a sculpted model from different directions

Geometric process planning in rough machining

This thesis examines geometric process planning in four-axis rough machining. A review of existing literature provides a foundation for process planning in machining; efficiency (tool path length) is identified as a primary concern. Emergent structures (thin webs and strings) are proposed as a new metric of process robustness. Previous research efforts are contrasted to establish motivation for improvements in these areas in four-axis rough machining. The original research is presented as a journal article. This research develops a new methodology for quickly estimating the remaining stock during a plurality of 2 y D cuts defined by their depth and orientation relative to a rotary fourth axis. Unlike existing tool path simulators, this method can be performed independently of (and thus prior to) tool path generation. The algorithms presented use polyhedral mesh surface input to create and analyze polygonal slices, which are again reconstructed into polyhedral surfaces. At the slice level, nearly all operations are Boolean in nature, allowing simple implementation. A novel heuristic for polyhedral reconstruction for this application is presented. Results are shown for sample components, showing a significant reduction in overall rough machining tool path length. The discussion of future work provides a brief discussion of how this new methodology can be applied to detecting thin webs and strings prior to tool path planning or machining. The methodology presented in this work provides a novel method of calculating remaining stock such that it can be performed during process planning, prior to committing to tool path generation

Virtual reality based creation of concept model designs for CAD systems

This work introduces a novel method to overcome most of the drawbacks in traditional methods for creating design models. The main innovation is the use of virtual tools to simulate the natural physical environment in which freeform. Design models are created by experienced designers. Namely, the model is created in a virtual environment by carving a work piece with tools that simulate NC milling cutters. Algorithms have been developed to support the approach, in which the design model is created in a Virtual Reality (VR) environment and selection and manipulation of tools can be performed in the virtual space. The desianer\u27s hand movements generate the tool trajectories and they are obtained by recording the position and orientation of a hand mounted motion tracker. Swept volumes of virtual tools are generated from the geometry of the tool and its trajectories. Then Boolean operations are performed on the swept volumes and the initial virtual stock (work piece) to create the design model. Algorithms have been developed as a part of this work to integrate the VR environment with a commercial CAD/CAM system in order to demonstrate the practical applications of the research results. The integrated system provides a much more efficient and easy-to-implement process of freeform model creation than employed in current CAD/CAM software. It could prove to be the prototype for the next-generation CAD/CAM system

A certification method for the milling process of free-form surfaces using a test part

International audienceIt is generally admitted that the manufacturing of free-form surfaces requires the use of a CAD-CAM system. The toolpath accuracy and the dimensional quality of the final shape have to be in accordance with the geometrical specifications. But most of the time, the final parts present deviations from the expected shape. These deviations may be due to either the toolpath calculation (CAM system) or the cutting process itself. In the paper, we propose an analysis of the whole milling process to point out the possible sources of errors. These errors generally lead to geometrical deviations and the final part does not meet the required specifications. As the errors can be linked to geometrical particularities of the shape, we propose a test part associated with check means to bring out problems. The milling of this part using two different techniques of toolpath generation shows that obviously both toolpaths are not error-free and that errors result from different geometrical particularities of the part surfaces