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Noninterference tool orientations and maximum taper angles of conical cutters in 4-axis milling of complex channel parts

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Abstract

Selecting the appropriate cutter size and determining the noninterference tool orientation are the key steps in planning the four-axis machining of complex channel parts. In this paper, based on the invariance property of isometric transformation and the function of the minimum distance between surfaces, a nonlinear numerical optimization method is proposed to accurately solve the noninterference critical tool orientation and maximum taper angle of the conical cutter. Furthermore, the optimization method for the maximum taper angle of the conical cutter can handle the different cases, whether the tool orientation is preset or not. Firstly, the basic theory of the proposed optimization method for the conical cutter is given. Secondly, the optimization method for calculating the noninterference tool orientation is provided. Thirdly, the local optimization method for the taper angle of a conical cutter with the tool orientation preset, and the global optimization method for the maximum taper angle of the conical cutter are provided. The conical cutter solved by the local optimization method can reach critical state with a single constraint surface, but the conical cutter solved by the global optimization method can reach critical state with multiple constraint surfaces. Finally, the proposed method is verified by the simulation experiments. The results show that the provided method accurately calculates the result for the noninterference tool orientation of a given conical cutter and the max taper angle of the conical cutter. Furthermore, it proves that the collaborative optimization strategy of the tool orientation and cutter taper angle used in the global optimization method is much better for the max taper angle of the conical cutter.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to appreciate Professor Junxue Ren for his leadership, and the constructive opinions of Dr. Jinhua Zhou significantly improved the paper.

Funding

This work is supported by the National Science and Technology Major Project (J2019-VII-0001–0141), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 52075451), and the Aeronautical Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 2019ZE053008), and the China Post-doctoral Science Foundation (Grant No. 2020M683551).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, 710072, China

    Wenbo Zhang, Junxue Ren & Jinhua Zhou

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  1. Wenbo Zhang
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  2. Junxue Ren
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  3. Jinhua Zhou
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. The initial idea of this paper was provided by Junxue Ren. The improvement suggestion was given by Jinhua Zhou. The algorithm design, data collection, and analysis were performed by Wenbo Zhang. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Wenbo Zhang and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Junxue Ren.

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Zhang, W., Ren, J. & Zhou, J. Noninterference tool orientations and maximum taper angles of conical cutters in 4-axis milling of complex channel parts. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 127, 4357–4385 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-023-11711-8

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