AN ALGORITHM FOR SURFACE DESIGN AND TOOL PATH GENERATION IN WIRE-CUT ELECTRICAL-DISCHARGE MACHINING

This paper proposes a CAD/CAM mathematical foundation to design ruled surfaces for wire-cut electrical discharge machining (EDM). This metho d combines the boundary planes concept, the Plucker coordinate represe ntation of lines, control lines and design function to generate free f orm ruled surfaces. The tool motion and offset surface can also be gen erated simply by the same approach for computer numerical control (CNC ) wire-cut EDM. The algorithm, being different from conventional metho ds, can present a surface or tool path concisely and uniquely. A numer ical example is given to illustrate the proposed approach.