A METHODOLOGY FOR SIMULATION AND VERIFICATION OF TOOL PATH DATA FOR 3-AXIS AND 5-AXIS CNC MACHINING

The main aim of using computer numerical control (CNC) technology for machining is to achieve better quality of machined part and intern increase the productivity of manufacturing operations. The NC toolpath data has the biggest effect on the machining time and accuracy of the machined surface obtained under given assumption that that we use an ideal machine tool and optimum cutting parameters for machining a workpiece on a CNC machine tool. In this paper, an approach for the simulation of tool path data for 3-axis and 5-axis machining has been introduced using Boolean subtraction approach using SolidWorksTM CAD package. The part modelling activities can be automated using macro in SolidWorksTM using Application Programming Interface (API). Thus in the developed NC toolpath simulator macro is developed for the verification of toolpath data for 3-axis and 5- axis machining operations for metal removal with ball end mill, flat end mill and toroidal end mill cutter shapes. The output from the simulated environment has been saved in STL format for easy comparison with the original part model which was also taken in STL format for the toolpath data generation. To verify the results generated from the simulator two methods namely visual graphical inspection and by use of ray tracing algorithm for determination of scallop height has been introduced. Two sculptured freeform part shapes to be machined with flat end mill cutter in 3-axis and 5-axis machining has been used to validate the working of the simulator macro as well as to verify the accuracy of input toolpath data.