OPTIMAL TOOLPATH PATTERN IDENTIFICATION FOR SINGLE ISLAND, SCULPTUREDPART ROUGH MACHINING USING FUZZY PATTERN-ANALYSIS

In the manufacture of sculptured parts from prismatic stock, rough mac hining dominates the machining time due to the significant shape diffe rence between the stock and part. For the sculptured part rough machin ing using 2.5D milling or contour-map machining, the appropriate selec tion of a toolpath pattern for each cutting layer can significantly im prove productivity and lead to lower production costs. In the paper, v arious feasible toolpath patterns are investigated. An intelligent app roach for automatically identifying the most productive toolpath patte rn for a given cutting layer is introduced. The study is focused on sc ulptured parts with a single island and no seriously nonconvex shape. The method is based on fuzzy cutting layer shape pattern clustering an d recognition. An example is used to illustrate the method.