ADACS: An Advanced Deburring and Chamfering System

This paper describes a numerically controlled finishing system, the Advanced Deburring and Chamfering System (ADACS). ADACS employs a user friendly, Graphical User Interface (GUI) to off-line program finishing and chamfering edges and prompt the operator for part cutting parameters. Given the operator-designated finishing and chamfering edges, ADACS extracts the features to generate a part finishing process plan. Collisions with the environment are detected and avoided through simulation of the cutting path before the path is downloaded to the actual hardware. ADACS interprets the finishing plan to generate motion trajectories that are tightly coupled to the tooling control. Because position control is too inaccurate for the required tolerances, ADACS uses active force control in the tool to compensate for any nominal error along the finishing path. This allows the cutter to apply a constant force to the edge. The ADACS approach to finishing parts can significantly reduce the manufacturing cost of a part by reducing rework and scrap, and improving process consistency and quality. A prototype ADACS has been built and successfully applied to aerospace test parts.