MACHINABILITY AND SET-UP ORIENTATION FOR 5-AXIS NUMERICALLY CONTROLLED MACHINING OF FREE SURFACES

In this paper, we investigate the problems of determining machinabilit y and part set-up orientation for a given surface model. We first deve lop kinematic models of the five-axis machines, based on the axis conf iguration, then develop algorithms for determining the feasibility of one-set-up machining (machinability) and the part orientation for type s C-A and A-B tool configurations. Machinability is determined by a co mputationally efficient procedure for finding the intersection of the feasible tool motion on the sphere and a visibility map which we call the binary spherical map (BSM). The part setup is so chosen as to give the smallest rotational range among all feasible configurations The a lgorithms developed have been tested via numerical simulations. The re sults show that they can be readily implemented in a CAD/CAM system, a s an automated process planner selecting the efficient machine type an d part set-up for NC machining.