An approach to gouging avoidance for sculptured surface machining

It is very important to generate an interference-free tool path for sculptured surface machining. An algorithm for sculptured surface tool path generation and gouging avoidance based on surface triangulation is proposed in this paper. A searching algorithm is used to find the associated triangles with a tool location. The quantity of gouging avoidance in +Z-direction is calculated. This algorithm has been used in a CAM system that has been developed by authors. The practical result shows that it is stable and efficient.