Realization of 3D Surface Machining by Turning (Proposal of Turning Method with Rotary Tool)

The machining of complex parts with the non-axisymmetric surface is persuaded by the conventional multi-axis milling machine and/or the grinding machine. Even though the machining is persuaded by the high speed cutting method, it takes long time to machine this process because the contact part between 3D surface and milling tool or grinding wheel is calculated for the tool pass that is just same as turning method. Therefore, to improve the productivity of this process, a new cutting process instead of the milling process or grinding process has been developed. We try to apply the turning process for 3D surface machining. The key factor for the turning of 3D surface is to speed up the motion of the tool post on the moving table compared with the one of the multi-axis milling machine or the grinding machine. To cope with the turning, the dedicate NC program for 3D surface by the original CAM system has been developed based on the proposed turning method. The creation of NC program including some data conversion processes from the 3D-CAD system are needed for building up tool trajectory. To create efficient and exact tool trajectory data, these conversion processes is calculated directory from the 3D surface in 3D-CAD system. It makes our original CAM system possible to extract the simple and reliable tool path for the NC program. In this report, a new turning method is proposed and the machining results based on the proposed method are reported. The performances of the control results of the CNC lathe are also evaluated by measuring the table behavior.