Path Generation for Flexible Flank Polishing on Freeform Surfaces With Uniform Over-Cuts

One of the bottlenecks in flexible flank polishing is the nonuniform overcuts problem caused by the difficulties of the polishing tool to conform to variable curvatures of the freeform surface along the polishing path. Consequently, it will significantly reduce the quality of finished surfaces and the service life of polishing tools. To solve the problem, a novel path generation method is proposed in this article, which not only gets the uniform overcut at a single cutter location, but also keeps its uniformity over an entire polishing path. First, a tool orientation model is built on the freeform surface by analyzing the process of flexible flank polishing. Then, a novel indicator of overcut uniformity is proposed with the developed Dupin indicatrix, and the tool orientation is determined by maximizing the indicator. Next, based on Taylor expansion, a polishing path generation method is presented with the consideration of overcut uniformity. Finally, the proposed method is verified and analyzed relative to a comparison method by both virtual simulations and physical experiments. These results present a good consistency with each other and together provide strong support for the correctness, feasibility, and efficiency of the proposed method, which further contributes to surface quality and polishing tool's service life.