Study on general analytical method for CNC machining the free-form surfaces

The purpose of this paper is to establish a systematic general analytical method for CNC machining the free-form surfaces, and develops the postprocessor to obtain the NC code. The method comprises five steps: (1) to find the equation of surface, (2) curvature analysis, (3) the selection of tool, (4) the error calculation of the linear incremental kinematics and (5) the calculation of the tool-path interval. To use the ball-end or face-end milling cutters for the convex or concave of surfaces, respectively. Through the verification by the solid cutting simulation software, it confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.