INCORPORATION OF TOOL-LIFE VARIABLES IN NC PATH PLANNING

An integration of tool-life variables with optimization studies is not evident in present literature. It is our belief however, that such an integration is required to make analytical NC path planning real. A two step process for analysing the tool path planning problem was carried out. First a simple path planning program was created that finds the total length of cut in a face milling operation (of flat convex polygonal shapes) using a staircasing strategy. Next, the impact of the locus of cut, entrance and exit on face milling was analysed through extensive literature analysis. A prototype program was hence written to include the effects of these variables on path planning. By adding more process variables and by performing more analysis on the present software, total simulation of machining strategies can be performed analytically.