A Comparative Analysis of the Impact of CNC Miller Programming on Machining Effects

Abstract

Abstract This paper presents a comparison of the impact of the programming methods of a CNC miller on the machining effects. As a part of the study, the test samples were made of the EN AW-2024 aluminium alloy. The CNC machining programs compared were developed with two programming methods: by inputting the CNC machining program directly from the CNC miller's control panel (machine level programming) and in a CAM software environment (CAM programming). The machining effect indicators adopted included: machining time, surface quality, and dimensional deviation of specific geometrical features. A measurement of the machining times revealed than the CAM programming reduced the machining time up to 20% from the machining time of the machine level programming. A conclusion stands valid that CNC machining programs developed in the CAM software environment are more efficient than CNC programming directly with the CNC miller control panel, most likely due to the machining path optimisation in CAM. In addition, given the experimental test results, it was found that smaller machined errors were also obtained for CAM programming. To conclude, the comparative analysis revealed that CAM programming provided better machining results than the machine level programming.