Rough cut machining for impellers with 3-axis and 5-axis NC machines

Abstract

In recent times, impeller machining has posed a new challenge to engineers due to demand from aerospace, automobiles, and ship building industries. Various methods are introduced by researchers in machining impellers by using 5-axis milling machine; this is because the 5-axis method has the flexibility of tool orientation to machine the extremely twisted surfaces between the blades of impellers. When impellers are machined by a 5-axis machine, the time consumed is very long and the process creates a bottleneck in the manufacturing line. The problem causes increase in the manufacturing lead time and manufacturing cost. To overcome the problem, this paper introduces a new method of machining impellers by integrating 3-axis and 5-axis machine. This paper opens up a new field in impeller machining with the aim to reduce rough-cut time. The results show that by applying this strategy, total machining time of an impeller can be reduced significantly up to 17%.