Tool path generation for 5-axis machining of an impeller

Abstract

An impeller is an essential part of turbo-machineries such as gas turbines, centrifugal compressors, etc. Five-axis machining method is mainly used to produce an impeller. There are many general-purpose CAM softwares that support five-axis machining. However, for the efficient production, a dedicated CAM software for the impeller machining is needed. This paper describes the five-axis tool path generation method for an impeller. An efficient method for generating tool path in cylindrical coordinates is developed. As usual in five axis machining, collision avoidance is considered as well. The software is implemented using C++ language and OpenGL graphics library under the WINDOWS NT operating system.