Optimal interface surface determination for multi-axis freeform surface machining with both roughing and finishing

In the current practice of multi-axis machining of freeform surfaces, the interface surface between the roughing and finishing process is simply an offset surface of the nominal surface. While there have already been attempts at minimizing the machining time by considering the kinematic capacities of the machine tool and/or the physical constraints such as the cutting force, they all target independently at either the finishing or the roughing process alone and are based on the simple premise of an offset interface surface. Conceivably, since the total machining time should count that of both roughing and finishing process and both of them crucially depend on the interface surface, it is natural to ask if, under the same kinematic capacities and the same physical constraints, there is a nontrivial interface surface whose corresponding total machining time will be the minimum among all the possible (infinite) choices of interface surfaces, and this is the motivation behind the work of this paper. Specifically, with respect to the specific type of iso-planar milling for both roughing and finishing, we present a practical algorithm for determining such an optimal interface surface for an arbitrary freeform surface. While the algorithm is proposed for iso-planar milling, it can be easily adapted to other types of milling strategy such as contour milling. Both computer simulation and physical cutting experiments of the proposed method have convincingly demonstrated its advantages over the traditional simple offset method.