For mold manufacturers with multi -axis machine tools, the development of CNC programs that can give full play to the ability of these machine tools is a difficult problem. The purpose is to make full use of the mobile machine's additional axis (workbench or knife rack) in the most effective way, and at the same time make the mold have good surface smoothness.
In recent years, the synchronization movement of machine tools has become increasingly complicated, which has also made the CAM software system facing difficulties in mathematics and technology. The rapid development of processing technology makes it difficult for the synchronous development of high -efficiency NC programs for running machine tools.
In addition, software products designed for multi -axis machine tools must be easy to use and can be corrected. The cost of materials, high -precision knives and attachments for these advanced machine tools is very expensive, so extremely small programming errors can also cause major losses.
Based on these prerequisites, the problem faced by CAM software developers is how to combine these powerful programming functions with the programming process that is easy to be understood by users. These functions must be clearly explained in order to guide users to complete the programming process, so as to avoid errors when determining the tool trajectory. At the same time, the programming process will not make the programming process rigid or limited.
Old -fashioned thinking
In order to provide users with a variety of processing solutions, CAM software developers always decompose four -axis and five -axis processing into various special functions that can be used for various tool trajectories. In fact, some CAM developers are proud of them with a variety of special functions.
The cost of developing this type of software makes the function of the system difficult to understand. Typical end users can only understand and use limited functions. The busy CNC programmers cannot remember the use of many functions of the CAM system, so they usually only programming based on their most familiar features and ignoring other functions.
Four simplified steps
The new concept of advanced processing functions is based on one point of view, that is, any five -axis processing function (no matter how complicated), you can use several simple steps to define. The mold manufacturer has adopted a trial and uncomfortable method to set the mold production process:
(1) Areas and processing sequences that need to be processed. This step is based on the complexity of the component shape, which is often the inspiration that is most likely to stimulate the technical mechanic.
(2) What shape should the knife trajectory in the processing area be? Should the tool cut according to the parameterized lines of the surface, cut it in front, or up and down in order, and guide the surface boundary as a guide?
(3) How to guide the axis of the tool to coincide with the car tool trajectory? This is very important for the quality of surface smoothness and whether a short hard tool is used in a small space. Mold manufacturers need to fully control the tools, including the front and rear inclination when the tool is tilted. In addition, the angle limit generated by many machine tools or knife racks during rotation must be considered. For example, there is a limit of rotation of milling/turning machine tools.
(4) How to convert the cutting path of the tool? At the beginning of the tool trajectory, control the tools that control the knife due to reset or generated displacement and the tools that must be generated between the processing area? It can eliminate the traces of the card and the knife generated (it can be removed by manual polishing).
