Tool path generation for a surface model with defects

✍ Scribed by Sang C. Park; Minho Chang

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 894 KB
• Volume: 61
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0166-3615
• DOI: 10.1016/j.compind.2009.07.003

✦ Synopsis

A C T A 3-axis tool path generation algorithm for free-form surface models including defects, such as gaps and overlaps is presented in this paper. To avoid the difficulty of computing a complete cutter location (CL)surface, the proposed approach generates a tool path by slicing CL-elements instead of a complete CLsurface. A key feature of the proposed approach is that it reduces the number of CL-elements to be sliced by utilizing the correspondence information between CL-elements and cutter contact (CC)-elements. This feature significantly improves the computational efficiency of the proposed algorithm. Empirical tests show that the proposed approach is robust to geometric defects of CAD models, gaps and overlaps, with a near O(n) time complexity, where n is the number of slicing planes.