Investigation of toolpath interpolation methods in the high-speed manufacture of molds and dies

Abstract

The application of high speed machining of molds and dies with their high complex geometry have made the traditional methods of toolpath interpolation normally used by CAM systems, i.e., linear and circular interpolations, the bottle neck of the whole process. These traditional interpolation methods increase the machining time, have a negative influence in the final quality of the surfaces and are a technological limitation for the full application of HSC. As a result, the study of new methodologies on toolpath interpolation is becoming one of the main areas of research in manufacturing of molds by HSM. Among the different methodologies of toolpath interpolation there are the linear, circular and polynomial. The milling experiments were made using work pieces of AISI SAE P20 Steel and the geometry from the NC Gesellschaft test part.