Turn-milling of blades in turning centres and multitasking machines controlling tool tilt angle

Abstract

The machining of high–added value blades represents a challenge due to the parts’ complex geometry and tight tolerances. Blades are common in the aeronautic, energy or automotive sectors. Nowadays, there is a strong trend towards the integration of all machining operations in the same machine tool platform; this is the so-called multitasking machining. The main advantage is that the part reference system is maintained along all the operations, and it also achieves shorter production lead times. However, milling operations have to be programmed for being performed in machines with a general lathe structure, which must be solved. For this reason, in this work, advanced programming for the production of blades in turning centres and multitasking machines is developed. Blade machining is developed by successive techniques. This article mainly focuses on the study of the optimal machining strategy for blades turn-milling. For that purpose, different strategies and tilt angles have been tested and applied initially to a test part and finally to a real part. The proposed methodology has been applied to a blade case study in order to obtain the best parameters and toolpath strategies for blades machining. They represent the main novelty and article contribution.