Five-axis Rough Milling Strategies for Complex Shaped Cavities based on Morphing Technology

This paper describes the development of a 5-axis roughing strategy for complex shaped cavities. The concept of morphing, commonly known to calculate transitions between 2D pixel maps, has been further developed to generate intermediate 3 dimensional roughing levels. In addition, a fast and robust algorithm for the generation of gauge free 5-axis tool paths has been developed. Toroidal tools are used and the tool orientation is optimised for maximal material removal. The newly developed strategy eliminates the typical stairs shape, appearing after conventional 2.5D roughing. Smoother finishing operations are thereby enabled. The influence of cavity parameters like wall steepness on the strategy performance is briefly discussed.