Free-Form Tools Design and Fabrication for Flank Super Abrasive Machining (Fsam) Non Developable Surfaces

Abstract

Manufacturing improvements are becoming a real need in industry. In order to satisfy these industrial requirements, they should be targeted in two different directions: new manufacturing processes and surface optimization through algorithms. On the one hand, Super Abrasive Machining (SAM) is presented as a new manufacturing process combining benefits from milling and grinding technologies. On the other hand, there is a tendency to manufacture non developable surfaces by flank milling and to achieve final dimensional and roughness requirements, by calculating mathematically-optimized tool trajectories. This work presents a design and manufacturing of a free form tool to be used for the manufacturing of a complex surface through Flank SAM (FSAM). Based on the tool requirements, it will cover the following stages: tool geometry design, tool core manufacturing, and electroplating for final abrasive tool generation.

Design, Motion-planning, and Manufacturing of Custom-shaped Tools for 5-axis Super Abrasive Machinig of a Turbomachinery Blade Type Component

“…The developed algorithm ensures that the resultant envelope is a highly accurate approximation of the input free-form surface. Furthermore, similar approach was applied to create a Super Abrasive Machining (SAM) tool considering a blade surface generatrix [18], where it is shown that this new technology of custom-shaped tools is advantageous both in terms of accuracy and manufacturing time.…”