Determining the Geometric Machinability of Flat End Mills for 3-Axis CNC Machining with an Indexer

摘要

This paper presents a method for machinability analysis based on the concept of C-space. The implementation of the strategy determines the machinability of a part being processed using a plurality of 3-axis machining operations about a single axis of rotation for setup orientations. Slice-visibility data, the size of the flat-end tool chosen and a specified cutting orientation are taken as inputs. This machinability approach expands upon earlier work on 2D visibility analysis for the rapid manufacturing and prototyping of components using CNC machining.