Non-concentric milling
AssigneeCeleritive Technologies, Inc.
InventorsEvan C. Sherbrooke, Glenn Coleman
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Technology for milling selected portions of a workpiece by a cutting tool of a numerical control machine is described. The described technology provides methods and apparatuses for milling areas of a part so that more aggressive machining parameters can be used in the toolpath, thereby resulting in reduced machining time and load. The technology creates a series of toolpath contours where arcs in the toolpath contours are non-concentric with arcs in other toolpath contours. The selected portions of the workpiece are milled by moving the cutting tool in accordance with the toolpath.
Claims11
A method for milling selected portions of a workpiece by a cutting tool of a numerical control machine, the numerical control machine having associated therewith a processor and a memory, the method comprising:
- computing a Voronoi Diagram of the portion of the workpiece;
- adding one or more branches to the Voronoi Diagram to create a Modified Voronoi Diagram, wherein at least one such branch is substantially distinct from any branch of the Voronoi Diagram, and wherein the addition of at least one such branch creates at least one Voronoi face substantially distinct from any face of the Voronoi Diagram and one or more boundary elements substantially distinct from the boundary of the portion of the workpiece;
- identifying one or more Voronoi faces defined by the Modified Voronoi Diagram;
- traversing the one or more Voronoi faces of the Modified Voronoi Diagram to create portions of a toolpath;
- and
- milling the selected portions of the workpiece by moving the cutting tool in accordance with the created portions of the toolpath.
A non-transitory computer-readable storage device storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed, perform a method for milling selected portions of a workpiece by a cutting tool of a numerical control machine, the numerical control machine having associated therewith a processor and a memory, the method comprising:
- computing a Voronoi Diagram of the portion of the workpiece;
- adding one or more branches to the Voronoi Diagram to create a Modified Voronoi Diagram, wherein at least one such branch is substantially distinct from any branch of the Voronoi Diagram, and wherein the addition of at least one such branch creates at least one Voronoi face substantially distinct from any face of the Voronoi Diagram and one or more boundary elements substantially distinct from the boundary of the portion of the workpiece;
- identifying one or more Voronoi faces defined by the Modified Voronoi Diagram;
- traversing the one or more Voronoi faces of the Modified Voronoi Diagram to create portions of a toolpath;
- and
- milling the selected portions of the workpiece by moving the cutting tool in accordance with the created portions of the toolpath.
A system for milling selected portions of a workpiece, comprising:
- a cutting tool associated with a numerical control machine;
- a processor and a memory associated with the numerical control machine;
- a component configured to compute a Voronoi Diagram of the portion of the workpiece;
- a component configured to add one or more branches to the Voronoi Diagram to create a Modified Voronoi Diagram, wherein at least one such branch is substantially distinct from any branch of the Voronoi Diagram, and wherein the addition of at least one such branch creates at least one Voronoi face substantially distinct from any face of the Voronoi Diagram and one or more boundary elements substantially distinct from the boundary of the portion of the workpiece;
- a component configured to identify one or more Voronoi faces defined by the Modified Voronoi Diagram;
- a component configured to traverse the one or more Voronoi faces of the Modified Voronoi Diagram to create portions of a toolpath;
- and
- a component configured to cause the cutting tool to mill the selected portions of the workpiece by moving the cutting tool in accordance with the created portions of the toolpath.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.