Today many industries use CNC machines forproduction of turbo machinery components like turbine blades,impellers, rotors, propellers etc. Turbine blades are complexshapes and difficult to machine on CNC. Contouring operationsare generally used for this purpose. This paper presentsoptimization of toolpath for turbine blades in vertical machiningcentre (VMC). Toolpath optimization of turbine blade usingMasterCAM?software results in reduction of machining time.Different contouring toolpaths are simulated in MasterCAM? prior to machining of turbine blades. Cutting Parameters usedfor machining are spindle speed, feed, tool diameter, plunge-rate,and depth of cut.Most of the research work is focused on cutter path generationwith the main aim on reducing total cycle time. Both productivetime and non-productive times (airtime, tool change time) areconsidered for optimization. Different toolpath generationmethods are studied to select the best one to find out optimizedcycle time. Different contour toolpaths being simulated are 2D,chamfer 2D, Ramp, Remachining and Oscillating. The objectiveof simulation is to generate the shortest tool-path for contouringoperation. Actual machining is done to validate the softwaresimulation time. Experimentation reveals that zigzag toolpath ismore favorable than any other strategies for the machining ofturbine blade for minimum cycle time. Ramp contour toolpath ismore favorable than any other toolpaths.
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