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An iso-scallop tool path generation method for three-axis machining freeform surface

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Abstract

Iso-scallop tool path has uniform scallop height (maximum allowed value) between cutter location (CL) points on the adjacent line, which can maximize interval values of tool path and minimize total lengths of tool path. However, iso-scallop tool path generation process is more complicated than common iso-parameter and iso-planar tool path. In order to avoid exceptions happened in offsetting surface or transforming surface to mesh, this paper generates iso-scallop tool path directly on surface. To improve computational efficiency, based on geometric principle of scallop height and iso-scallop CL points, scallop points are iteratively calculated based on a discrete feature point set including the golden section points. An initial CL location is calculated to be closer to the wanted theoretical iso-scallop point. And an adaptive discretization method is proposed to obtain discrete feature points on surface. The minimum distance from feature points to the CL point is calculated iteratively for the wanted iso-scallop CL point. Both scallop points and iso-scallop CL points are calculated iteratively by a small amount of feature points for efficiency improvement. Two examples of typical freeform surface are used to test the presented method. The results indicate that the scallop height of iso-scallop tool path is uniform, and total lengths are shorter than lengths of iso-planar tool path.

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Data availability

Main data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this article. All data in this article are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Code availability

All code is available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This research is funded by the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20210865), China Postdoctoral Research Foundation (2020M671604), University Science Research Project of Jiangsu Province (20KJB460025), Science and Technology Program of Suzhou City (SYG202043), and Graduate Research and Innovation Projects of Jiangsu Province (202010332012Z).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Mechanical Engineering, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou, 215000, China

    Tian-Li Wang, Wei Liu, Lv-Yang Fan, Zi-Yu Zhang & Peng-Fei Li

  2. Tianping College of Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou, 215000, China

    Wei Liu

Authors
  1. Tian-Li Wang
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  2. Wei Liu
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  3. Lv-Yang Fan
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  4. Zi-Yu Zhang
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Contributions

Tian-Li Wang, Wei Liu, and Lv-Yang Fan designed the algorithms of calculating scallop points on tool circle in Section 2. Zi-Yu Zhang and Peng-Fei Li designed the algorithms that calculate the initial value of the CL point in the next line tool path in Section 3.1. Tian-Li Wang, Wei Liu, and Lv-Yang Fan designed the algorithms of iso-scallop CL point calculation process in Section 3.2. Tian-Li Wang, Wei Liu, and Zi-Yu Zhang carried out the examples in Section 4. Tian-Li Wang, Wei Liu, and Lv-Yang Fan wrote the paper. All authors discussed the results and revised the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Wei Liu.

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Wang, TL., Liu, W., Fan, LY. et al. An iso-scallop tool path generation method for three-axis machining freeform surface. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 128, 1391–1402 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-023-11988-9

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