A study on workspace, boundary workspace analysis and workpiece positioning for parallel machine tools

We present an algorithm, called the boundary search method, to determine the workspace of a parallel machine tool, and taking the parallel machine tool BJ-30 developed by the Harbin Institute of Technology as an example, its workspace based on the cutter point is calculated. We also analyze the boundary workspace in order to expand its operating scope. Due to the irregular workspace of the parallel machine tool and the angle confinement between tool axis and Z-axis, it is difficult to determine the right position and orientation of a workpiece in the workspace by intuition. So we illustrate how to construct a mathematical model to realize the automatic positioning of a workpiece, and this is an important instruction of significance and reference value when cutting a workpiece.