An automated approach to calculating the maximum diameters of multiple cutters and their paths for sectional milling of centrifugal impellers on a 4_(1/2)-axis CNC machine

作     者：Baohai WU Zezhong C.CHEN Ming LUO Dinghua ZHANG Feiyan HAN 

作者机构：School of Mechanical EngineeringNorthwestern Polytechnical University Department of MechanicalIndustrial and Aerospace EngineeringConcordia University College of Mechanical EngineeringXi'an University of Science and Technology 

出 版 物：《Chinese Journal of Aeronautics》 (中国航空学报（英文版）)

年 卷 期：2019年第32卷第4期

页      面：1030-1039页

核心收录：

学科分类：08[工学] 082503[工学-航空宇航制造工程] 0802[工学-机械工程] 0825[工学-航空宇航科学与技术] 0801[工学-力学（可授工学、理学学位）] 

基　　金：supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.51475328) the National Science and Technology Major Project of China(No.2015ZX04001202) 

主　　题：Automated path generation 4_(1/2)-Axis CNC machining Centrifugal impeller machining Cutter diameter optimization Sectional machining 

摘      要：Power generators and chemical engineering compressors include heavy and large centrifugal impellers. To produce these impellers in high-speed machining, a 4?-axis milling machine(or a 4-axis machine plus an indexing table) is often used in the industry, which is more rigid than a5-axis milling machine. Since impeller blades are designed with complex B-spline surfaces and impeller channels spaces vary significantly, it is more efficient to use multiple cutters as large as possible to cut a channel in sections and a blade surface in patches, instead of only using a small cutter to machine a whole blade and a channel. Unfortunately, no approach has been established to automatically calculate the largest diameters of cutters and their paths, which include the indexing table angles. To address this problem, an automated and optimization approach is proposed. Based on the structure of a 4?-axis machine, a geometric model for a cutter gouging/interfering the impeller is formulated, and an optimization model of the cutter diameter in terms of the indexing table angle is established at a cutter contact(CC) point on a blade surface. Then, the diameters of the tools,their orientations, and the indexing table angles are optimized, and each tool s paths are generated for machining its corresponding impeller section. As a test, an impeller is efficiently machined with these tools section by section; thus, this approach is valid. It can be directly used in the industry to improve efficiency of machining centrifugal impellers.