A Postprocessor Based on the Kinematics Model for General Five-Axis Machine Tools

This paper presents a novel concept to describe the three types of five-axis machine tools by a generalized kinematic structure. A generic postprocessor capable of converting the cutter location (CL) data to machine control data was developed based on the generalized kinematics model of five-axis machine tools. The machine tool's form-shaping function matrix is derived according to the homogeneous coordinate transformation matrix and the kinematic parameters characterizing the configuration of general five-axis machine tools. The analytical equations for NC data are determined by equating the CL data matrix and the form-shaping function matrix. A trial-cut experiment on a typical five-axis machine tool and the verification on the coordinate measurement machine demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed scheme. The algorithm proposed here can facilitate determination of the postprocessors for various five-axis machine tools more systematically.