Cutter shape determination and tool path generation in CNC flank milling

We study cutter shape determination and tool path generation in 5-axis CNC flank machining milling. According to the fact that the cutter cutting tool with a revolution surface is tangent to the target surface, we formulate the rigid motion of a cutter as a constrained optimization problem. We analyze this problem in details and give an algorithm to determine moving direction of cutter cutting tool. The movement of the cutter gives a sequence of tool axis axes which forms a ruled surface. The least squares fitting to meridian curves of all revolution surfaces leads to a revolution surface which determines the shape of the cutter cutting tool. By experiments, we show that the machined surface by the proposed method has small approximation error to the target surface.