Five-axis STEP-NC controller for machining of surfaces

Five-axis machining is more widely used in manufacturing of freeform surfaces. However, in five-axis machining of freeform surfaces, incomplete information exchange between computer numerical control (CNC) and computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) results in many limitations need to be rectified. In the paper, a new structure of CNC based on STEP-NC standard is proposed, where tool path planning, tool offset, and inverse kinematics are transferred from CAM to CNC. In order to guarantee good openness, open platform and standard interface are applied in the development. Technology of module collaboration and design of data flow are studied. A five-axis real-time interpolator for non-uniform rational B-spline surfaces machining is realized. Based on these technologies, a five-axis CNC is developed in the manner of software realization, which consists of interpreter, task coordinator, axis group, softPLC, etc. The software CNC system has been applied on a tilt-rotary type five-axis machine tool, where the milling experiment has been performed successfully.