G-codes and free-form motions

Cross, Ben; Cripps, Robert; Matthews, Jason; Mullineux, Glen

Abstract

The usual route from computer aided design to manufacture is firstly to use computer aided manufacturing software to obtain suitable paths for the cutter of the required machine tool. This path needs to be transferred to the controller of the machine and this involves discretizing the path as a sequence of intermediate tool positions which then form the basis of a set of instructions given in the form of G-codes. The controller must then re-form the required motion and control the cutting tool appropriately. A difficulty is that the re-formed motion may be sufficiently different from that originally specified that manufacturing errors occur. The CAM software may try to prevent this by increasing the number of intermediate positions resulting in a large data set. It is proposed that alternative is to enhance the G-code command set to allow free-form motions defined in terms of geometric algebra. In particular, a “spiral segment” motion can be regarded as an extension to three dimensions of circular interpolation and complicated motions can be specified as a sequence of such segments.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: TMCE Symposia
• Start Date: May 7, 2018
• End Date: May 11, 2018
• Acceptance Date: Jan 20, 2018
• Publication Date: Apr 30, 2018
• Deposit Date: Jan 29, 2018
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Keywords: CNC machining, G-code, cutter path, free-form motion
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/868821
• Publisher URL: http://tmce.io.tudelft.nl/
• Related Public URLs: http://tmce.io.tudelft.nl/
• Additional Information: Title of Conference or Conference Proceedings : Tool and Methods for Competitive Engineering (TMCE2018); Corporate Creators : EPSRC
• Contract Date: May 11, 2018