A freeform surface manufacturing approach by integration of inspection and tool path generation

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae, and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand, or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material. Freeform surfaces have been widely used in various engineering applications. Increasing requirements for the accuracy of freeform surfaces have led to significant challenges for the manufacturing of these surfaces. A method for manufacturing of freeform surfaces is introduced in this paper by integrating inspection and tool path generation to improve manufacturing quality while reducing manufacturing efforts. Inspection is conducted by comparing the digitised manufactured surface with the design surface to identify the error regions. In this new inspection technique, the areas on the manufactured surface that are beyond the design tolerance boundaries are used as the objective function during the localisation process, in order to minimise post-inspection machining efforts. The tool path generation methods are then selected based on the geometric characteristics of the identified error regions, for creating tool paths to remove the errors. Computational efficiency, machining efficiency, and quality are considered in this integrated method. 1. Introduction Freeform surfaces, also called sculptured surfaces, are widely used in aerospace, automobile, consumer products and die/mould manufacturing, and many other industries. Increasing precision requirements for products with freeform surfaces have led to significant challenges for manufacturing companies. Freeform surfaces are primarily manufactured by multi-axis computer-numerical-controlled (CNC) machining. Various methodologies and computer tools have been developed in the past to improve the efficiency and quality of freeform surface machining. To ensure quality, these machined surfaces need to be inspected based on the design tolerances. When some regions on the manufactured surface are beyond the tolerance boundaries, it is not efficient to start from scratch with a new part. In these cases, additional machining processes are required to correct the errors on the manufactured surface. Both the inspection of freeform surfaces to determine errors and the CNC machining to correct the …