Development of NC Automatic Programming System for Directional Cutting of Profiles
Abstract
This paper presents the research and development process of NC automatic programming system for directional cutting of profiles. The overall design of the NC programming system, the function module and the specific working procedure of each module are introduced. Based on the analysis of the characteristics of the cutting process, the principle of graphical programming technology is discussed. The programming of the system is realized with the software development language C#. By combining the upper-level program and the low-level program of the system, the NC code can be generated automatically. It is verified that the system can realize the NC automatic programming of directional cutting of profiles, and improve programming efficiency.
Keywords：NC automatic programming；Directional cutting of profiles；C#
1 Introduction
In the cutting process of profiles, one of the most complex programming technologies is directional cutting, which is also an important guarantee for the precision and cutting quality of continuous machining surface. However, manual programming makes programming costs increase rapidly, therefore, the development of NC automatic programming system for directional cutting of profiles has great guiding significance for the modern industrial production.
2 Overall Design of the NC Programming System
Firstly the overall structure of the system is designed, which consists of the user control module, the NC code generation module, the chat module, the simulation module and the post-processing module. As shown in Figure 1.
Fig 1 Overall structure of the system
When use the NC programming system, the operator only need to input the original geometric information and the parameters of cutting process into the user control module, and then the system will generate the NC code automatically. Through the chat module, it can guide the user to complete the input data in another way. The NC code generated by system can be tested in the simulation module to ensure the correctness and reliability of the system. Finally, the post-processing module can directly generate post-processing procedure and supporting documents (such as report files, programs, etc.) of the product after processing.
3 Function Module and Working Procedures
The NC programming system contains four function modules, which includes: data input, parameter setting, graphical programming and NC code generation.
3.1 Data input module
This module is used for inputting the relative positional relation of the objects, the cutting parameters, the workpiece position relative to the machine coordinate system and the cutting method. During the data input process, the system will constantly monitor the accuracy of the input data, and can issue an error warning information when the data is wrong or incomplete.
3.2 Parameter setting module
This module is used for setting the cutting parameters and parameters of graphical programming. The user can easily adjust the cutting speed, feed rate and retract height of the cutter, so as to optimize the cutting parameters and ensure the machining quality.
3.3 Graphical programming module
Based on the analysis of the characteristics of the cutting process, the principle of graphical programming and the related software development language C# are discussed in this module. The system adopts the graphical programming technology to realize the process path of profile cutting processing. After the graphical programming is completed, it can generate corresponding NC code.
3.4 NC code generation module
In this module, both the upper-level program and the low-level program of the system are combined, and the spatial coordinates of each node are obtained according to the path curve and matched with the programming language of the NC machine tool, so that the NC code is generated automatically. Finally, the verification of the NC code is completed in the simulation module.
4 Simulation Results
Finally, the NC programming system for directional cutting of profiles is developed and debugged. The generated NC code has been verified in the simulation module, as shown in Figure 2, and the simulation result is as shown in Figure 3. The result shows that the system can correctly realize the directional cutting of profiles.
Fig 2 NC code generated by the system
Fig 3 Simulation results of the system
5 Conclusion
The research and development of NC programming system for directional cutting of profiles has been carried out in this paper. Four modules such as data input, parameter setting, graphical programming and NC code generation are designed and the overall structure of the system has been discussed. The development of the system is completed with the C# software development language. After the development and debugging of the system, the simulation result shows that the system can realize the NC automatic programming of directional cutting of profiles, and drastically improve the programming efficiency.
