MATHSM: medial axis transform toward high speed machining of pockets

The pocketing operation is a fundamental procedure in NC machining. Typical pocketing schemes compute uniform successive offsets or parallel cuts of the outline of the pocket, resulting in a toolpath with C-1 discontinuities. These discontinuities render the toolpath quite impractical in the context of high speed machining (HSM). This work addresses and fully resolves the need for a C-1 continuous toolpath in HSM and offers MATHSM, a C-1 continuous toolpath for arbitrary C-1 continuous pockets. MATHSM automatically generates a C-1 continuous toolpath that consists of primarily circular arcs while maximizing the radii of the generated arcs and, therefore, minimizing the exerted radial acceleration. MATHSM is especially suited for machining of elongated narrow pockets. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.