Tool Orientation Planning Method Based on Divided Surface

In the process of complex curved surface, the curvature change is often too large, which will lead to the sharp fluctuation of the cutter axis vector of the adjacent cutter contact, and affect the quality of the machining process. This paper presented a planning methodology of tool orientation for 5-axis sculptured surface CNC machining base on divided surface. Frist, the discrete points of surface were generated, then Gaussian curvature and mean curvature was calculated. By using Gaussian curvature and mean, the surface was divided into multiple regions. We planned orderly tool orientation in each regions, mutational local area were optimized. The method reduce the rate of change with tool orientation effectively. Finally, the effectiveness of this method were verified by computer implementation and examples. (C) 2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd.