A novel circular/helical tool path planning algorithm is proposed. Acceleration and jerk limited velocity profiles provide the vibration-free machine operations. Proposed methods are verified by the real-time experiments on a 4-axis industrial CNC-Milling machine.Figure A. a) Circular motion in cartesian space b) jerk limited velocity profile of the CNC machiningPurpose: This study presents a novel circular/helical tool path planning algorithm for CNC machining based on G02 and G03 commands to prevent contour error occurred by existing methods in the literature. Also, the proposed method is interpolated by jerk and acceleration limited velocity profiles optimized with velocity transition algorithm between G-Commands for the purpose of vibration-free machine operations.
Theory and Methods:In this study, the circular / helical tool paths are generated using X, Y, Z and R data in G02 and G03 commands without contour errors, and the required velocity values in transitions of G-commands are determined. According to the velocity values at the transition points, jerk constant velocity profiles not exceed the acceleration capacities of the axis motors are designed. Also, the tool path planned in cartesian space is interpolated by Taylor's equations based on the designed velocity and acceleration profiles.
Results:In order to observe the performance and effectiveness of the study, the application of the spherical milling and circular pocket milling is achieved on a 4-axis industrial CNC-Milling Machine. The spherical milling is conducted with two different G-code files: rough process (with 1500 lines of G-code) and finish process (with 35.000 lines of G-code) whereas circular pocket milling is achieved by 1200 lines of G-code. Also, axial trajectory tracking results of each experiment is observed using RMSE and MSE performance indices.
Conclusion:For all experiments, the maximum jerk, acceleration and velocity values are specified by 10.000 mm/s , 1000 mm/s and 30 mm/s, respectively. It is observed from the velocity, acceleration, and jerk graphs of the interpolation process that the maximum parameters are not exceeded, and the acceleration and jerk graphs that directly affect the machine vibrations have a continuous and stable structure. Also, the processed products using over a thousand lines of G-code files show that the mathematical structure of the tool path planning algorithm is robust and comprehensive.