Control for high speed cutting tool
AssigneeParametric Technology Corporation
InventorsCharles M. Farah, Tamas T. Badics
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A computer-implemented method and system is disclosed for controlling a cutting tool of a high speed cutting machine. The method and system provides an effective tool path for controlling a cutting machine under a constant rate of material removal in a high speed cutting machine in order to get away with the extreme cutting forces. The tool path also allows to better transfer the heat generated between the cutting tool and the workpiece through the chip. The method and system can be applied to any geometry of final shape of a workpiece.
Claims28
A computer-implemented method for machining selected portions of a workpiece by a cutting tool of a high speed cutting machine, said method comprising the steps of:
- providing a horizontal slice of the selected portions of the workpiece;
- determining an initial boundary of the slice, the boundary being open to the air;
- generating subsequent boundaries in the selected portions of the slice, said subsequent boundaries being determined by removing the selected portions of the slice by a cutting depth of the cutting tool buried in the workpiece from the previous boundary;
- generating a tool path based on the boundaries of the selected portions within the slice, said tool path being positioned in the air from the boundaries depending on the radius of the cutting tool and a predetermined value of the cutting depth of the cutting tool;
- and
- machining said selected portions by moving the cutting tool along said generated tool path maintaining the cutting tool in a climb cutting condition as the cutting tool machines the selected portions of the workpiece to provide a constant tool load on the cutting tool.
A controller for controlling a cutting tool of a high speed cutting machine, comprising:
- a memory element for storing instructions for controlling the cutting tool and data regarding the workpiece required to control the cutting tool;
- and
- a processor operated by the instructions stored in the memory element for controlling signals for a tool path of the cutting tool, said processor includes
- means for horizontally slicing the selected portion of the workpiece using the data regarding the workpiece stored in the memory,
- means for examining the data of a slice of the workpiece to determine an initial boundary of the selected portion of the slice,
- means for generating subsequent boundary data of the selected portions of the slice, said subsequent boundary data being determined by subtracting the cutting depth of the cutting tool buried in the workpiece from the previous boundary data, and
- means for generating signals for a tool path, the cutting tool path being positioned in the air remote from the boundaries depending on the radius of the cutting tool and a predetermined value of the cutting depth of the cutting tool,
- wherein said cutting tool maintains a climb cutting condition as the cutting tool machines the selected portions of the workpiece to provide a constant tool load on the cutting tool.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.