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CAD/CAM programming in CATIA V5

Tiago Joo Casal Ribeiro De Paiva IST-Instituto Superior Tcnico Lisbon ,Portugal tiagopaiva@ist.utl.pt AbstractThis paper deals with the theme of CAD/CAM programing in CATIA V5. It was studied the effects of the tool paths in the machined part, in terms of time and surface finishing. This study was completed with the manufacturing of two parts from Embraer production lines Index TermsCATIA V5, CAD/CAM, Tool paths, aeronautical components machining, Aluminum 7050. CNC. I. INTRODUCTION Aeronautical industry has, nowadays, a strong role in the Portuguese economy. The presence of the Brazilian company, Embraer, comes to reinforce this role. Embraer Portugal will manufacture composite parts and aluminum 7050 parts. This last ones will be studied in this paper. Aluminum 7050 is known as the aeronautical aluminum because it is used for most of structural parts on airplanes. The following table summarizes its properties: Yield stress 455MPa Final stress 524 MPa elongation 7-8 % The parts obtained from this material are CNC machined, with end mills. The reason for this is that the production batches are small and so, machining is the production process that have the lower cost. End mills are used due to its widely applications. Typically are used carbide end mills with TiAlN coatings. This coating is very appropriate for cutting aluminum due to its low friction and high hardness, providing a huge productivity for a relatively low cost, when comparing with PCB or diamond tools. II. CATIA V5 AND CAD/CAM PROGRAMING CATIA V5 is a CAD/CAM software design by Dassault systems that allows, in the same software, to build the model (CAD) and program its manufacturing (CAM). This is a huge advantage because there is no loss of information in file format conversion. This software is very user friendly, and allow the user to program every machining elementary operation graphically.

After the programming is done, the software has incorporated some post processor that work perfectly in 3 axis milling. III. TOOL PATH ANALISYS For each operation, CATIA V5 provide us with several toll paths styles. Each style leads to a certain machining time and surface finishing. In this paper, its showed the tool path analysis for pocketing, facing, roughing, sweeping and isoparametric machining operations, based on its machining time and also surface finishing. After developing some simple geometries, each operation was studied individually. For the optimization of machining times, its recommended the following toll paths styles: Pocketing Outward helical Facing Back and Forth Roughing Zig Zag Sweeping Zig Zag Isoparametric machining Zig Zag For the purpose of the surface finishing, there are two situations to be studied: roughing operation and finishing operations. For the roughing operations, the surface finishing is not important so, in order to accelerate this operations, the distance between paths must be high (at least 30-40% of the tool diameter). For the finishing operations, the distance between passes must be lower, which means a uses of 60-70 % of the tool diameter. This allow to save precious time in the roughing operations and, at the same time, get a good surface finishing in the finishing operations. Also a cutting parameter study was performed. The base of this study was the Seco Tools aluminum catalog. The federate can be determined as a percentage of the tool diameter, as showed in the following graphic table (examples): Tool Slot milling Side milling JS 520 a=0.044 D N.A JS 553 a= 0.0085 D a=0.007 D

IV. CASE STUDIES To aplied the studies done before, two Embraer part wer maid.

For each it was chosen to use a mechanical press to fix the raw material to the machine. In the right geometry (geo 1), due to its simplicity, the raw material was fixed by milling to slots in the lower part of the raw material. For the left one (geo 2), due to its larger size and complexity, it was built a base in which the raw material was bolted. This way, after the roughing operation was completed, the bolts were unscrewed in order to relief tensions to prevent warping of the part. For the machining of this parts, five tools were used:

For the second geometry (geo 2), it was neede three grips. The first was the roughing operations. After this, the part was unbolted and bolted again. It was required two more finishin operations, after each one, the screws were unbolted and bolted again. Also in this geometry was registered some tool vibration because of the same reasons stated above. However, due to some adjustments in the parameters, this vibration was highly reduced. Due to a programming error in this parameter, there was a colision between the tool (end mill 10mm) with one of the part walls, destroing that wall. This also lead to the partial releasing of the tool, witch was very clear when the finnishing program finnished.

This tools are: a end mill of 400 mm of diameter with five cutting inserts, a end mill of 16 mm of diameters and 3 cutting edges, a ball end mill, with 10 mm of diameter, one drill with 2.5 mm of diameter an a drill of 10 mm of diameter. To machine these parts, the folowwing machine was used:

This forced to write an additional program to correct this. Also, the tool was refitted in the fixing device and its offset measured again. This allowed to finish the CNC machining of this part.

This is a Deckel Maho ECO 50, 5 axis CNC machine, equiped with a siemmens sinumerik 810D controller. However, only 3 axis machining was used to machine the parts. The first geometry (geo 1) was obtained in a single grip, for the CNC part. The completion of it was performed in a conventional milling machine, where the remaingin material was cut off. Despite of all the preparation work, it was seen a lot of unwanted vibration. This vibration were due to a huge legh in balance of the tool, necessary due to the height of the walls. This forced the reduction of the feedrate, witch increase substancially the machining time of the part.

For the removing of the remaining material in the base of the part, the top part was glued to a sacrificial base, exposing the base material.

Then, the remaining material was milled in a conventional milling machine. However, due to its large size, when the thickness reached about 5 mm, the glue method failed, releasing the part, witch lead to a unfinnished part. For the dimensions purpose, it was measured some diference between the CAD model and the machined part. This differences weres very litle and were due to the use of a

mechanical fixing device for the 10 mm end mil, with lead to some runout. V. CONCLUSIONS Both of the parts were machined successfully. However, there were problems due to the excessive vibration of the tool, witch lead to a poor surface finishing in the first geometry. The refitting of the machining parameters allowed to get a good surface finish in the second geometry. It was also verified that the cutting parameters used were successful. About the fixing devices of the tools, all mechanical fixing devices should be exchanged to thermal fixing devices in order to eliminate the run out of the tool. Also, the fixing method of the first geometry was successful. For the second geometry, an alternative fixing method is provided next. The idea is to build a part with appendices with holes. This holes will provide a mechanical fixing, via bolts, with a base built for this purpose. After the CNC is done, the part is flipped upside down and bolted again, removing all the remaining material in the base. Finally, the appendices are mechanically removed (by a mechanical saw, for example) and polished by hand.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT CATIA V5 software is very versatile CAD/CAM software. Its also very user friendly and simple to use. It was fairly easy to program the parts in this software and, the parameters and strategies used proved to be very efficient. It was also clear that all tools must be fixed with thermal fixing devices, in order to eliminate unwanted vibrations and also eliminate run out problems. REFERENCES [1]http://www.embraer.com/ptBR/ConhecaEmbraer/TradicaoHistoria/Paginas/Home.aspx, saw in 24/04/2013 [2]http://www.embraer.com/ptBR/ConhecaEmbraer/EmbraerNumeros/Paginas/Home.aspx saw in 24/04/2013 [3]http://www.embraer.com/ptBR/ConhecaEmbraer/PresencaGlobal/Paginas/Home.aspx , saw in 24/04/2013 [4]Alloy 7050 sheet and plate, ALCOA [5] WALSH, Ronald A.; CORMIER, Denis, Machining and metalworking handbook, McGraw-Hill, 2005 [6] DAVIM, J. Paulo, Machining, Fundamentals and recent advances, Springer, 2008

[7] RODRIGUES, Jorge, Fresagem, Folhas da cadeira de maquinagem [8] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CATIA, saw in 29/03/2013 [9] CHILDS, Thomas; MAEKAWA, Katsuhiro; OBIKAWA, Toshiyuki; YAMANE, Yasuo, Metal machining, Theory and applications, Arnold, 2000. [10]OKADA,Masato, HOSOKAWA,Akira, TANAKA, Ryutaro, UEDA, Takashi, Cutting performance of PVDcoated carbide and CBN tools in hardmilling, International journal of machining tools & manufacture [11] SIVASAKTHIEVEL, P.S.; MURUGAN, V.; SUDHAKARAN, R; Prediction of tool wear from machining parameters by response surface methodology in end milling; International journal of engineering science and technology. [12] LUO,Q.; ROBINSON,G.; PITTMAN,M.; HOWARTH,M.; SIM,W.-M; STALLY,M.R.; LEITNER, H.; EBNER,R.; CALISKANOGLU,D.; HOVSEPIAN,P.Eh; Performance of nano-structured PVD coating TiAlN/VN in dry high speed milling of aerospace aluminium 7010-T7651, Elsevier [13] KHORASANI,Amir Mahyar, YAZDI, Mohamed Reza Soleymani, SAFIZADEH, Mir Saeed, Tool life prediction in face milling machining of 7075 Al using artificial neural networks (ANN) and taguchi design of experiment (DOE), IACSIT international journal of engineering and technology, February 2011 [14] GHIONEA, Ionut; GHIONEA, Adrian, Optimization by simulatio of surfasse machining on CNC machine tools using CAD-CAM techniques; international multidisciplinay conference. [15] Catlogo de fresas do fabricante DORMER [16]http://www.sandvik.coromant.com/ptpt/knowledge/tool_holding_machines/application_overview/to ol_holding/tool_holding_milling/Pages/default.aspx, saw in 10/06/2013 [17]Catlogo Evolution N: Fresado eficidente del alumnio. [18]HARIK,Ramy; CAPPONI, Vincent; LOMBARD, Muriel; RIS, Gabriel; Enhanced functions supporting process planning for aircraft structural parts

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