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Indexed by:期刊论文

Date of Publication:2013-08-01

Journal:INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMPUTER INTEGRATED MANUFACTURING

Included Journals:SCIE、EI

Volume:26

Issue:8

Page Number:720-730

ISSN No.:0951-192X

Key Words:CAD; CAM; CNC machining; boundary-conformed tool paths; trimmed free-form surfaces

Abstract:Boundary-conformed iso-parametric or streamline-like tool paths are highly desired for machined surfaces requiring extra high finish quality or superior aerodynamic effect in some applications. However, for a trimmed free-form surface, its trimmed boundaries usually do not follow the original iso-parametric curves. As a result, conventional iso-parametric tool path methods are not applied readily on the trimmed surface to generate boundary-conformed tool path, especially on the multiple-trimmed surfaces. In this study, a new method to the problem of boundary-conformed tool path generation on the trimmed surfaces is proposed. The basic idea of the method is to map directly the trimmed surface onto a 2D parametric square domain using mesh mapping technique. Then, the iso-parametric lines on the parametric domain are inversely mapped onto the original trimmed surface to regenerate boundary-conformed tool paths. As the method does not rely on processing on the original parametric domain of the surface patches, it is not limited to the single-trimmed surface and is also well applicable to the multiple-trimmed surfaces and mesh surfaces. The proposed method is implemented and tested on several typical examples to demonstrate its validity and significance.