An interference-and-chatter-free tool orientation planning method for five-axis NC machining

Five-axis machine tools are widely applied in machining parts with complex structure or geometric shape because of the two additional rotary axes. Meanwhile, the solution space of the tool orientations is significantly enlarged. Interference is considered in most traditional methods to compute feasible tool orientation space. However, since the surface quality requirements keep increasing, machining stability should be seriously confirmed. This paper proposes a new tool orientation planning method by considering both interference and chatter avoidance. Interference-free tool orientation space is first computed at each cutter location point (CLP). Then the machining stability is evaluated to eliminate the tool orientations leading to machining chatter from the interference-free tool orientation space. Based on this interference-and-chatter-free tool orientation space, a tool orientation smoothing strategy is implemented. The proposed method is tested by two cases and the experimental comparison results show that interference and chatter avoidance can be achieved. [Submitted 26 January 2018; Accepted 27 March 2018]