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US 9,778,649 B2Granted
Profit milling
AssigneeD.P. Technology Corp.
InventorJianping Song
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Methods and devices for computer-assisted milling of a pocket region of a workpiece by computing a blend arc radius, where the blend arc radius is based on a maximal variation of a Tool Engagement Angle (TEA), and smoothing at least one offset, where the smoothing is based on the computed blend arc radius and/or a prior computed blend arc radius with a stepover.
Claims17
A method of milling a pocket region of a workpiece, the method comprising:
- computing a blend arc radius, wherein the blend arc radius is based on a maximal variation of a Tool Engagement Angle (TEA);
- smoothing at least one offset of a toolpath, wherein the smoothing is based on at least one of:
- the computed blend arc radius and a prior computed blend arc radius with a step over;
- limiting the TEA via limiting a maximal curvature at a previously smoothed at least one offset, wherein the TEA is based on the stepover and a tool radius;
- determining a center area of the pocket region of a workpiece, wherein the center area surrounds a center of a local sub-region, and wherein the center area comprises a size determined based on the stepover and the tool radius;
- recreating a set of different tool movements inside the determined center area formed by a closed smooth profile, wherein the TEA of the recreated set of tool movements inside the center area is kept within a specified range;
- determining a milling tool path in the pocket region of a workpiece based on maintaining a Material Removal Rate (MRR) at each point of the toolpath, wherein the MRR does not exceed a specified value during milling;
- wherein the milling tool path is further based on keeping feedrate change and TEA change within acceptable ranges;
- and
- milling the pocket region of the workpiece based on the milling tool path.
7 more elements
A device comprising:
- a processor having addressable memory, the processor configured to:
- select a pocket feature of a workpiece to be machined;
- create at least one contour-parallel offset, wherein the at least one contour-parallel offset is created from at least one of:
- at least one boundary of the pocket feature and an offset based on a Voronoi Diagram (VD);
- compute a preferred smoothing radius (PSR), wherein the PSR is the radius of a Preferred Smooth Arc (PSA);
- identify any narrow areas in the at least one contour-parallel offset;
- replace the identified narrow areas with a blend arc;
- smooth the at least one contour-parallel offset of a tool path based on the PSR as a blending radius, and use the PSR to limit a Tool Engagement Angle (TEA);
- determine a center area of the pocket feature of a workpiece based on the smoothed at least one contour-parallel offset, wherein the center area surrounds a center of a local sub-region;
- recreate a set of different tool movements inside the determined center area, wherein the TEA of the recreated set of tool movements inside the center area is kept within a specified range;
- determine if any of the remaining offsets can be smoothed, wherein the processor ends a process when no offsets can be smoothed and the process continues when at least one offset can be smoothed;
- and connect each offset with at least one linking movement;
- wherein inward offsets of all offsets in the a aroup of offsets are generated by using the PSR as an offset distance;
- and
- wherein a workpiece is milled based on the smoothed contour-parallel offset of the tool path.
12 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.