A Study of Cutter Path in High Speed Rough Milling of Pockets. Part I: Modelling and Performance Evaluation

Considering large aeronautical parts, such as wing ribs, a volume up to 90-95% of the initial weight is removed. Prticularly pocket milling takes 60-70% of the total cycle time, so this operation plays an important role in the cost definition of the final product. Since typical materials in aircraft frames are aluminium alloys. High Speed Machining technology is convenient and more frequence used, also for rough operation. Using modern production systems cutting velocity and feedrate are relatively high also in rough machining. Main features of linear trajectory and cubic spline trajectory have been numerically evaluated in part I of this paper. In the second part tool paths have been experimental tested in terms of machining time considering high speed rough machining of pockets; a comparison between linear interppolation and cubic spline has been performed using CNC systems and an open architecture revolute robot.