Toolpath planning algorithm for the ablation process using energy sources

Ablation processes using various energy sources such as lasers, electrical power and ultrasonic sources have been widely used in industry to ablate workpieces made of hard-to-cut and temperature resistive materials. Even though the cutting mechanism of the ablation process is different from that of the mechanical cutting process, an identical toolpath of the mechanical cutting process has been applied to the ablation process. An inappropriate toolpath for the ablation process may result in a lower dimensional accuracy of the ablated part. Therefore, a new toolpath planning algorithm considering the characteristics of the energy source is required. In this paper, a toolpath planning algorithm for the ablation process is proposed. The proposed algorithm consists of three steps: (1) The generation of a valid toolpath element, (2) the storage of toolpath elements and the creation of sub-groups, (3) the linking of sub-groups. New guidelines on the toolpath demanded by the ablation process are studied. A new idea involving the use of a storage matrix is applied to the storage of toolpath elements and the creation of sub-groups. In order to verify the applicability of the proposed algorithm, the proposed toolpath planning algorithm has been implemented and tested with practical examples.