Tool Path Planning for Free-Form Surfaces of CNC Milling Machine

The tool path of free-form surfaces plays an important role in the manufacturing process of a product. It is one of the key factors that determine the efficiency of the manufacturing process, the quality of final products, the productivity and machining accuracy. The present book points toward investigating an algorithm for planning a tool path in machining free-form surfaces on 3-axis CNC milling machine. This book offers an algorithm to generate different tool paths depending on circular interpolation and compare it with linear interpolation .The book contains deriving principle equations to design profile of a proposed surface, deriving of mathematical equations to estimate (radius of curvature, normal vector of the curve, CC and CL points) to generate a tool path and get (G-code). The practical side has been implemented on C-TEK vertical CNC milling machine using eight CAD models from Teflon which are divided into two groups: four models for the G-code that generated using the proposed algorithm and the others for the G-code generated using software package. Basic statistical error analysis methods are presented. Also two case studies are designed and manufactured in this book.