The common cutting methods of CNC machining centers are divided into six types: reciprocating cutting; one-way cutting; one-way cutting along the contour; following peripheral cutting; following workpiece cutting; cycloidal cutting.
1. Reciprocating cutting:
The reciprocating cutting method creates a reciprocating parallel cutting tool path, maintains continuous motion during the step motion, and can maximize the material removal without lifting the knife. It is the most economical and trouble-free cutting motion. This cutting method coexists with down milling and reverse attack. If the wall cleaning operation is enabled, it will affect the direction of the tool path of the wall cleaning, so as to maintain the wall cleaning is pure down milling or up milling.
2. One-way cutting:
The one-way cutting method produces parallel and one-way cutting tool paths, and the return stroke is a fast traverse motion, because no cutting occurs during the return stroke, so it will affect the processing efficiency. Unidirectional cutting can always maintain consistent down milling or up milling cutting, and is usually used for surface processing of islands and occasions where reciprocating cutting methods are not suitable, such as some steep-wall ribs, generally used for surface finishing.
3. One-way cutting along the contour:
Unidirectional Cut Along Contour is used to create parallel, unidirectional, along-contour toolpaths, always maintaining climb or upcut milling cuts. The quality of the processed wall surface is better than that of reciprocating cutting and unidirectional cutting, and the cutting is relatively stable without impact on the tool, so it is usually used for processing parts with relatively high side wall requirements or thin-walled parts.
4. Follow the peripheral cutting:
The following peripheral cutting method is mainly used to create a sequential, concentric tool path along the contour, which is obtained by offsetting the peripheral contour, and all paths are presented in a closed form in the processing area. The tool path following the peripheral cutting is a continuous cutting tool path without empty cutting, and can basically maintain simple down milling or up milling. Therefore, it has high cutting efficiency and can maintain cutting stability and ensure processing quality. It is usually used for belt cutting. Roughing with islands and cavity parts.
5. Follow the workpiece cutting:
Follow the workpiece cutting method to produce a series of toolpaths that profile all the specified contours of the machined part, both the peripheral wall of the cutting zone and the islands in the cutting zone. These toolpath shapes are obtained by offsetting the outer contour of the cutting zone and Island contours are obtained. The tool path that follows the workpiece cutting is a continuous cutting tool path. Without air cutting, it can maintain simple down milling or up milling, so it has high cutting efficiency and can maintain cutting stability and ensure processing quality. It is usually used in the cavity processing area with islands.
6. Cycloid cutting:
The cycloidal cutting method is used to generate small circles around the contour, so as to avoid cutting too much material due to full cutting. Cycloidal cutting is suitable for high-speed machining and is processed with a relatively uniform cutting load.
