Development of Tool Path Generation with Addable and Modifiable using Surface Parameter

In the CAM field, a lot of strategies for tool path generation are proposed. CAM operators have to select an appropriate strategy in accordance with the characteristics of the cutting surface. Then, if the generated tool path based on the selected strategy were judged as insufficient to the cutting result, i.e., surface roughness and homogeneity, another strategy have to be attempted repeatedly. Therefore, large amount of effort are required until a satisfactory tool path is obtained. In order to solve this problem, a new method of tool path generation with addable and modifiable that can be calculated with low cost is proposed in this study. This novel method enables fast addition and modification of tool paths by calculating on parametric domain of cutting surfaces expressed as parametric surfaces. Using this method, it can be expected that the CAM operators can avoid confusion in strategy selection and reduce the effort to obtain the satisfactory tool path. This report describes the basic principle and implementation of the proposed method.