ALTERNATIVE OPTIMIZATION STRATEGIES AND CAM SOFTWARE FOR MULTIPASS ROUGH TURNING OPERATIONS

The development of constrained optimisation analyses and strategies for selecting optimum cutting conditions in multipass rough turning operations based on minimum time per component criterion is outlined and discussed. It is shown that a combination of theoretical economic trends of single and multipass fuming as well as numerical search methods are needed to arrive at the optimum solution. Numerical case studies supported the developed solution strategies and demonstrated the economic superiority of multipass strategies over single pass. Alternative approximate multipass optimisation strategies involving equal depth of cut per pass, single pass optimisation strategies and limited search techniques have also been developed and compared with the ''rigorous'' optimisation strategies. The approximate strategies have been shown to be useful, preferably for ''on-line'' applications such as ''canned cycles'' on CNC machine controllers, but recourse to the ''rigorous'' multipass strategies should be regarded as the reference for use in assessing alternative approximate strategies or for CAM support usage.