Patent Application
20090214312
This application claims the priority of German Patent Document No. 10 2008 010 983.5, filed Feb. 25, 2008, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated by reference herein.
The invention relates to a method for the optimized milling of workpieces close to the final contour, in particular of chamfers on turbine blades.
In the course of processing workpieces, chamfers are also frequently required, i.e., bevels of the workpiece edges, which normally have small dimensions as compared to the overall dimensions of the workpiece. These chamfers are applied at a specific angle, such as 45 degrees for example, by means of a metal-cutting method. These types of chamfers may either be used for structural purposes, for example when they serve as slide surfaces or limit stops, or they may also fulfill safety-related functions. The latter application in particular is to be found practically everywhere where the affected component edges carry with them the risk of injury, whether this is during assembly or during the subsequent operation of a device that includes the component. Sharp edges with partially projecting chips, so-called burrs, are generated in this case especially when processing metallic materials by means of metal-cutting methods such as, for example, milling, and namely especially when the angle between the adjacent surfaces is not an obtuse angle.
Depending upon the function to be fulfilled, we will speak in this context either of a chamfered edge (structural function; more likely to have larger and more exactly determined dimensions with smaller relative tolerances) or a deburring (safety-related function; more likely to have small to the smallest dimensions that are often less precisely determinable, with larger relative tolerances).
While in the case of individual parts or workpieces with large tolerances for removing burrs or for chamfering as well as in the subsequent processing of already installed workpieces, manual methods such as, for example, filing come into play, chamfering or deburring is put into operation in series production preferably in an automated manner using appropriate machines. For workpieces that are essentially straight, permanently mounted machines, for example, a carriage may be used, on which the to-be-processed workpiece is fed along the chamfer milling tool and thereby deburred or chamfered. In the case of more complex geometries, such as those that are the rule for example in the construction of vehicle bodies or engines, so-called deburring robot cells are used. Essentially there is a multi-axis robot in these manufacturing facilities, which guides the deburring tool on a pre-programmed path along the corresponding edge(s). If need be, these types of devices may be supplemented by imaging and/or tactilely functioning sensors that determine the precise position of the workpiece in the cell and/or the prevailing size of the burr that needs to be removed so that appropriate situation-dependent adaptation of processing parameters may occur.
In the case of a sensorless configuration of these types of deburring robot cells, great attention must be paid to the precise positioning of the workpiece in the cell, because otherwise the path of the deburring tool will not correspond precisely to the path required to achieve an optimum processing result; the path lies at a precisely defined distance and at a defined position or orientation to the respective workpiece edge.
But even in the case of sensor-supported deburring robot cells, the processing result is frequently suboptimum, because the results essentially depend upon path planning. Normally, path planning aims at making sure the tool axis of a rotating or rotationally symmetrical tool is always aligned perpendicular to the surface being processed. However, practice has shown that this type of alignment produces an optimum processing result only in rare cases and especially not in the case of complex paths that are spatially multi-dimensional.
Manual path planning or optimization, which is characterized by a multitude of experiments and corresponding assessments of the experiments, is not desirable because these experiments require a lot of time and result in high costs.
Conversely, particularly with high-technology applications, such as, for example, constructing power plants or engines and, in this case, very particularly, in the manufacturing of corresponding turbine blades, an optimum processing result is essential since otherwise proper operation of the devices is not at all possible. Because these types of devices are always comprised of a plurality of individual, at least partially identical components, such as, for example, turbine or engine blades, a high level of series stability when manufacturing of these types of components is an important goal, something which is being achieved only inadequately by the path planning methods represented in the current state of the art.
Consequently, the objective of the invention is making available a method that can achieve optimum results with the milling of chamfers close to the final contour or the deburring of workpiece edges. The method is aimed in particular at providing a path optimization that is required to achieve an optimum processing result, wherein this optimization should preferably take place in an automated manner and within a short time.
Accordingly, the kinematic sequence of motion is optimized by allowing for an additional rotation around an axis parallel to the tool axis with respect to kinematic and/or kinetic and/or workpiece-specific manufacturing criteria. Because the inventive method can be automated, the desired optimization of the path planning may take place quickly and securely. The level of series stability with deburring close to the final contour is significantly increased because of the optimized processing that results from the inventive method.
Additional preferred embodiments can be found in the following detailed description and the figures.
The basis of the inventive method is the realization that the use of robot-supported chamfering or deburring in the case of rotationally symmetrical tools possesses a degree of kinematic freedom that may be utilized to achieve the desired optimum processing results.
In contrast to path planning methods used in the prior art, which are normally aimed at making sure that the vector product of the tool axis of a rotating tool and surface normal of the workpiece surface are always pointing in the feed direction of the tool, other target requirements are used in accordance with the inventive method that can lead to achieving a better processing result than would be possible with an alignment of individual vectors in accordance with the prior art.
In other words, path planning optimized in accordance with the inventive method normally leads to the vector product of the tool axis of a rotating tool and surface normal of the workpiece surface not pointing in the feed direction at all times.
Consequently, the inventive method for optimized milling close to the final contour by means of a rotationally symmetrical tool, is characterized in that the kinematic sequence of motion is optimized by allowing for an additional rotation around an axis parallel to the tool axis with respect to kinematic and/or kinetic and/or workpiece-specific manufacturing criteria.
In this case, milling tools in particular are a possibility as rotationally symmetrical tools. The processing result is not affected by the inventive additional rotation, because an additional degree of freedom for programming the sequence of motion along a predetermined contour exists based on the rotational symmetry of the tool.
It is theoretically possible to perform the milling process manually, i.e., manually controlled by an operator. However, according to a preferred embodiment of the inventive method, this milling process is carried out in a robot-supported manner. Using an automated production means, which is robot-supported in most cases, is practically essential particularly when producing series components that are geometrically complex.
According to a further preferred embodiment, the milling is carried out by means of a CNC machine tool. Even though these types of machine tools in most cases offer a lower number of degrees of freedom as compared to tool robots, they are adequate, however, for many typical tasks and are then preferably used because of their more favorable procurement and maintenance costs.
Especially preferred embodiments of the inventive method use the path of the tool and/or its speed and/or its acceleration as the target variable for optimization. According to further preferred embodiments, kinematic characteristic values derived from the previously mentioned target variables may be used as an alternative or in addition.
Thus, a particularly preferred target variable may be for example that the angular acceleration of the milling tool either does not exceed a specific value or is minimized on average and over the entire milling path, because experiments have possibly shown that, when exceeding a specific limit value, tool vibrations and therefore inadequate processing results must be anticipated, which moreover are not exactly foreseeable and therefore especially critical.
A further especially preferred target variable according to the invention may consist of the rotation of the vector field, which is formed by the three vectors comprised of the tool axis, the surface normal of the workpiece surface as well as the respective vector cross-product, being equal to the null vector 0.
Achieving the goal of an optimum path planning is achieved in an especially preferred manner according to the invention in that the optimization of the kinematic sequence of motion is carried out by means of numeric methods. Alternatively, it may also be provided that in certain cases not only a numeric, but also an analytical, solution exists for the respective problem, which then may be used additionally or alternatively. In the most frequent cases, however, it will be impossible or possible only with disproportionately great effort to find an analytic solution, which is why problem solving with the aid of numeric methods is preferred.
Normally, optimizing the sequence of motion or the appropriate path planning on the basis of the additional degree of freedom belongs to the non-trivial class of np-complete problems or multidimensional non-linear optimization problems, which is why an analytical solution for the optimization problem may exist or be found and specified only in rare cases. According to the invention, the following numeric optimization methods are preferably used in particular:
the numeric method may be a recursive min-max game strategy;
the numeric method may be a variant of the method of the steepest gradient;
the simulated annealing method may be used as the numeric method;
a genetic algorithm may be used as the numeric method;
the evolution strategy may be used as the numeric method;
a variant of operation research may be used as the numeric method; especially preferably linearly overdetermined systems of equations to minimize the Gaussian least square may be used in this case; and
a Monte Carlo method may be used as the numeric method.
It is clear that the foregoing enumeration of numeric methods must not be regarded as definitive, in fact it represents a selection that is felt subjectively to be optimum, which in the future may be expanded at any time by other, for example, newly developed methods, and also includes all combinations of the cited methods with one another or with other expedient optimization methods.
The inventive method may be used in general for generating an optimized path for guiding a rotationally symmetrical tool, wherein this path may also serve to smooth a surface for example. According to a preferred embodiment, the inventive method is used, however, particularly to optimize paths or sequences of motion for manufacturing chamfers or for deburring workpiece edges.
According to an especially preferred embodiment, the method is used in particular for manufacturing chamfers, which are located on turbine blades, and/or for deburring the same.
The invention will be described in the following on the basis of examples along with the drawings.
As evident directly from the sketch, it is obviously possible to rotate the workpiece 1 at will around the tool axis 3 without impacting the processing result. Because of the rotational symmetry of the tool 2, there exists an additional degree of freedom for programming the sequence of motion along a predetermined contour.
Because the rotationally symmetrical tool 2 according to the prior art must be adapted continuously to the respective position of the surface normal nF, the necessity of constantly realigning the tool axis 3 of the rotationally symmetrical tool 2 arises and, thus, because of the movement, additional forces, particularly accelerating forces and centrifugal forces, are exerted on the tool 2, which may negatively impact positioning accuracy and thus the processing result.
In contrast to
In contrast to
1 Workpiece
2 Tool, rotationally symmetrical tool
3 Tool axis, nw
4 Surface normal, nF
5 Chamfer/deburring, surface element dA
6 Vector cross-product, ns
7 Workpiece contour
8 Feed direction
The foregoing disclosure has been set forth merely to illustrate the invention and is not intended to be limiting. Since modifications of the disclosed embodiments incorporating the spirit and substance of the invention may occur to persons skilled in the art, the invention should be construed to include everything within the scope of the appended claims and equivalents thereof.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 2008 010 983.5 | Feb 2008 | DE | national |
