Rolling disk model and its application to tool path and envelope generation for profile machining

Tool cutting envelope (TCE) and tool path (TP) for planar profile machining are calculated at the same time in the presented work, using a novel motion method called Rolling Disk Motion (RDM) method. RDM method employs a rolling disk (RD) as the manufacturing tool, and considers the disk running around profile boundaries as cutting process. During this RD motion, RD center locus is just TP for profile or contour-parallel manufacturing strategy. Also, the track of point on RD contracting with the profile is just TCE. Furthermore, the RDM technique can find a further application in the study for uncut areas in machining domains. As well, the calculation of TCE, TP and uncut areas, based on RDM, are finished only by simple point transformations and arcs creation. Finally, an example is included to illustrate TCE and TP computation by means of RDM, and the result shows that the approach is implemented and tested successfully on real-world data.