Abstract
The overall quality and efficiency of a machined part relies heavily on the tool path that is used. A more recently developed toolpath method is known as trochoidal milling, which is also known by several other terms, such as adaptive milling, circular milling, or volume clearing. In order to follow the contours of the final geometry, this path can give rise to a significant number of direction changes, which result in highly variable force directions on the tool. Chatter, or self-excited vibration that occurs at the tool or workpiece, can therefore be mitigated or avoided since periodic resonance does not have time to increase the vibration’s amplitude.
A randomized variation of the trochoidal path is tested in this research. Using this new proposed method, stochastic behavior of the toolpath is implemented. The toolpath consists entirely of circular arcs, which drive the tool in a pseudo-random fashion. The stability of such a path is examined in this work. A key parameter of this path is the allowable radius range of the circular arcs. It was found that the most efficient path utilized a median parameter value, illustrating an overall negative parabolic relationship between path efficiency and tool path radius. It was also discovered that smaller arcs reduced chatter. Future studies will explore the behaviors of this path for milling 3D surfaces.
