Interference checking device

For a machine tool furnished with a plurality of structures including at least tool- and workpiece-holding structures, with drive mechanisms for driving structures, among said plurality of structures, equipped to be movable, and with a controller having an analytical processor for sequentially analyzing a machining program block by block and extracting at least movement commands involving the movable structures, and having a control execution processor for executing the machining program blocks by generating control signals based on the movement commands sequentially extracted by the analytical processor and controlling operation of the drive mechanisms based on the generated control signals, an interference checking device for ascertaining whether, due to movement by the movable structures when driven by the drive mechanisms and operationally controlled by the controller, the movable structures themselves, the other structures apart from the movable structures, or tools and workpieces held by the tool- and workpiece-holding structures, will interfere with each other, the interference checking device comprising:

• a modeling data memory for storing three-dimensional modeling data constituted to include at least shape data defining the three-dimensional shape of each structure in the plurality of structures and the three-dimensional shapes of the tools and workpieces held by the tool- and workpiece-holding structures, and storing information related to axes of travel and/or axes of rotation established for said structures, tools, and workpieces;
• an interference data memory for storing interference data defining inter-component interference relationships among said structures, tools, and workpieces;
• and
• an interference determination processor for
• sequentially analyzing the machining program block by block and extracting movement commands in a block at least one block succeeding the block being executed in the control execution processor of the controller;
• generating, based on the received movement commands and the three-dimensional modeling data stored in the modeling data memory, data three-dimensionally modeling the states into which the structures involving the movement commands in said succeeding block would be moved;
• determining, based on the generated three-dimensional modeling data and on the interference data stored in the interference data memory, whether, by the movement of said structures involving said succeeding-block movement commands, said structures themselves, other structures apart from said structures, or the tools and workpieces held by the tool- and workpiece-holding structures will interfere with each other;
• and
• updating the three-dimensional modeling data stored in the modeling data memory with the generated three-dimensional modeling data.