Global toolpath modulation–based contour error pre-compensation for multi-axis CNC machining

Contour error compensation is an active research topic in five-axis CNC machining, especially in the manufacturing of sculptured surface parts. Nevertheless, current methods are mainly based on the mirror compensation principle, and fail to obtain a desired level of accuracy when processing parts with tight curvature feature. To address this issue, a global toolpath modulation-based contour error pre-compensation method is developed in this paper, which incorporates the error compensation issue into the stage of toolpath planning with a linear analytical solution. In this method, the nominal toolpaths used to machine the products is first expressed by dual B-spline curves, and then the instantaneous tracking error model of each individual drive is built with respect to control points of splined path. Afterward, the satisfaction condition of the spline control points for eliminating the contour error is yielded, which provides a possibility for compensating contour error in a global manner, and the neighbor-dependent coupling issue in error compensation between adjacent cutter location points is capable of being handled as well. On this basis, by applying the least-squares technique, the complicated contour error pre-compensation problem is further converted into a solution of simpler linear equation system. For enhancing its robustness when processing long toolpaths, an adaptive piecewise modulation strategy is also developed. Finally, both experiment and simulation are conducted to validate the proposed method, and the results demonstrate that the proposed method can significantly improve contour precision at low computational costs when compared with the existing pre-compensation method.