Gear cutting – milling – or planing – Milling – With regulation of operation by templet – card – or other...
Patent
1989-02-07
1991-05-14
Briggs, William
Gear cutting, milling, or planing
Milling
With regulation of operation by templet, card, or other...
318578, 36447403, B23Q 3504, G05B 1918
Patent
active
050151304
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a contour profiling machine for the execution of machining in which the outer part or inner part of a workpiece is cut away along the contour of a model.
DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART
In machining a workpiece, the workpiece generally is rough-machined into a desired shape and thereafter is subjected to finishing machining. In particular, when a metal mold is machined from a solid material (workpiece), the process of rough machining is often given much weight. Though automation, particularly the implementation of numerical control (NC), is making progress with regard to the machining of metal molds, an improvement in the efficiency of rough machining processes is especially required.
Heretofore, during the rough machining of pockets or the like, milling in 2 1/2 dimensions has been carried out in such a manner that, as shown in FIG. 10(A), a 7 cutter 2 is moved in an X-Y plane at a height Z.sub.1 so as to cut away a designated area AR1 of a workpiece 1. The cutter 2 is then lowered to a height Z.sub.2 so as to cut away areas AR2 and AR3 of the workpiece 1 at this height, as shown in FIG. 10(B).
With rough machining based on such conventional milling, however, a problem encountered is that a long period of time is required, thereby diminishing machining efficiency. Particularly in the machining of metal molds, apart from the long period of time expended on rough machining, smoothing of the machined surface to the greatest extent possible is demanded in order to raise the efficiency of finish machining which follows the rough machining.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been devised in order to solve these problems. Its object is to provide a contour profiling machine which shortens the period of time for rough machining and which forming a smooth machined surface.
According to the present invention, there is provided a contour profiling machine having a tracer head which is movable in three axes along a model shape. The operation of a cutting tool is controlled to be in synchronization with displacement of the tracer head. Limit setting means is employed for setting a limit as to one of the axes of the tracer head, and for setting limits parallel to and limits orthogonal to a direction of movement within a plane of movement determined by the first-mentioned limit. Polarity discrimination means is employed for discriminating polarities of the limits which are set relative to the direction of movement of the tracer head. Clamping means is employed for clamping contour profiling within a range defined by the set limits.
Thus, with the contour profiling machine of the present invention, the operation of the cutting tool is controlled to be in synchronization with the tracer head movable in three axes along the model shape. In cases where the model shape is either concave and convex. Rough machining can be performed with contour profiling clamped in a range defined by the set limits, while machining based on contour profiling equivalent to that of finish machining can be performed with the clamp released. Therefore, a smooth machined surface can be formed efficiently and at the same time as rough machining by utilizing the contour profiling function.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIGS. 1(A) through 8 are diagrams explaining tracing operations according to the present invention;
FIG. 9 is structural diagram showing an example of the contour profiling machine of the present invention; and
FIGS. 10(A) and 10(B) are diagrams of rough machining in the prior art.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
An embodiment of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 9 is a diagram of one embodiment according to the present invention. A contour profiling machine TDM has a tracer head TC and a cutter CT. The tracer head TC has a stylus 4 at its distal end. The stylus 4 is held so as to be finely movable along a Z axis, an X axis and a Y axis. The fine movement of the stylus 4 is detected a
REFERENCES:
patent: 4266172 (1981-05-01), Yamazaki
patent: 4356552 (1982-10-01), Imazeki et al.
patent: 4703239 (1987-10-01), Yamazaki et al.
patent: 4747734 (1988-05-01), Ide et al.
Matsuura Hitoshi
Tsukamoto Osamu
Briggs William
Fanuc Ltd.
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