Comparing Planar Pocketing Tool Paths Via Acceleration Measurement

Pocketing operations are common in automotive and aerospace industry. An efficient operation in terms of cost and quality requires the selection of an adequate strategy: tool-path, cutting speed, rpm etc. Two methods help in this task, numerical simulations and experimental measures. This work explains how to compare planar pocketing tool-paths by measuring the milling table acceleration. An experimental setup with a tri-axial accelerometer glued to the milling table, an open-source acquisition card programed in C language, and a post processing procedure (calibration plus filter) are the main components of the proposed method. Three pocketing strategies (zig-zag, contour, spiral) are performed to understand the comparison methodology. The proposed solution has an easier implementation and it is cheaper than dynamometer systems, whereas it provides similar information. Note that this is an initial study and further tests are needed to demonstrate its potential.