Abstract

Background: In the five-axis milling process of aviation integral impeller, the cutter axis vector is changed dramatically. It leads to marks on the finished surface, even the damage of it, and the chatter is easy to occur. So the machining precision is difficult to guarantee.

Objective: For solving this problem, a research on five-axis NC simulation and parameter optimization for aviation integral impeller was carried out.

Methods: A new method used for the parameter optimization is proposed, which considers the collision and chatter at the same time. Firstly, a NC simulation environment was created in the VERICUT, which can achieve the geometry simulation of specific process system. This can effectively avoid the collision among the machine spindle, cutting tool, worktable and fixture. Then, using the dynamic simulation software cutpro9.0, the hammer test and stability domain simulation were conducted under a given radial cutting depth (cut width). The stability region expressed by spindle speed and axial cut depth was obtained. The machining time was taken as the optimization objective, and cutting depth, spindle speed, feed per tooth were taken as the experimental factors, an orthogonal experiment of three factors and four levels was designed. The cutting time can be gained through geometry simulation. Based on the range analysis, the machining parameters for shorter time were given. The optimization results were validated by cutting experiment. Besides, a lot of patents on five-axis NC machining and parameter optimization were studied.

Results: The results show that the proposed method can promote the efficiency of rough machining of aviation integral impeller, and the quality of finished surface can be ensured too.

Keywords: Dynamic simulation, CUTPRO hammer test, orthogonal experiment, parameter optimization, VERICUT, spindle speed.

Graphical Abstract