A non-singular five-axis trochoidal milling process method for 3D curved slots

3D curved slot structures have a wide range of applications in the aerospace field, which have large material removal, small wall thickness, and are mostly manufactured by five-axis process. Trochoidal milling has become an effective method to process such parts because of the low and stable milling force and high machining efficiency. However, unlike the three-axis trochoidal milling of flat slots, the five-axis machining introduces additional rotation axes, which complicates the control of the machining process. Due to the complex double sidewall structure of 3D curved slots, tool interference and singularity issues will easily occur during machining, which will reduce the machining efficiency and the workpiece quality. In view of the above problems, this study proposes a non-singular five-axis trochoidal milling process method for 3D curved slots. Firstly, the trochoidal cutter location (CL) path model is established in the 2D parameter domain of the bottom surface. Meanwhile, an efficient interference-free tool orientation planning method is proposed based on the theory of vector rotation and quadratic interpolation. Then, the optimization strategy of the workpiece clamping orientation is proposed to avoid singularity and improve machining efficiency. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by simulation and experiment, and the result shows that the processing efficiency of the proposed method is improved by 71.5%. The proposed process method provides a useful idea for high efficiency NC machining of 3D curved slot parts.