Software for Computer Aided Manufacturing of Complex Pockets

This paper presents an original approach and the corresponding application for the assisted programming of CNC milling machines to form plane pockets with complex contours. It contains a processor for the extraction of characteristic points from the given contour and a post-processor that incorporates an algorithm for recursive milling of the pocket interior using equidistant curves. The contour can be any combination of lines and circular arcs and the pocket is assumed not to have islands. The postprocessor outputs ISO code programs and was tested on the MORI SEIKI MSX-504 milling machine.