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Five – Axis Machining Programming using CATIAV5R16 for Aerospace Part:

Plane System and Publication

Conference Paper · December 2008

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 Five – Axis Machining Programming using
CATIAV5R16 for Aerospace Part: Plane System
and Publication
S.Syahrul Azwan, M. Mohd Razali, A.B Baharudin

Department of Process Engineering, Faculty of Manufacturing Engineering, Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka, Ayer
Keroh Melaka, Malaysia

e-mail: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract. community since 1980s. With additional two rotational

degrees of freedom, it offers numerous advantages compared
Five-axis machining normally applies in aerospace, to the three-axis machining, such as higher production rate,
automotive, mold and die industries. The main aim of this
increase the flexibility of machining, shorten the machining
research was to discover the best method or approach of
setup and time and thus is widely used in the manufacture of
machining for five-axis three dimensional (3-D) shapes with
aided by plane system and publication command application. complicated geometries in various industries such as
Plane system and publication command method were capable to aerospace, automotive and molds and dies. There are two
increase the speed of the machining programming process different milling methods in five-axis CNC machining. In
especially when related to five-axis. The strong reason behind it point milling, the cutting edges near the end of a tool
was to support the demand of five-axis machining in Malaysia perform the material removal. In contrast, the side face of a
nowadays which rapidly growth. Thus, it was a must to lower cutter does the machining in flank milling. Users can select
down the production cost in order an industry to sustain in the an appropriate one according to the work piece geometry,
very competitive market today. One of the methods taught was
surface finish, machining time, and cost [1]. The 5-axis
definitely by improving the programming time with the
machines have operation limits in more than one rotating
methods applied in this research. The software used for the
machining programming in this research was CATIAV5R16. axis. Any post-processor that is able to handle the operation
The program created and generated was successfully machined limit is not available in the above works. Meanwhile, most
in MAZAK-VRX630 (five-axis) machine. The material used was commercial CAD/CAM software vendors who are capable of
Aluminum 7075 series and cutting tools used were a ball nose 6 generating tool path data for 5-axis machining provide these
mm diameter and end mill 10 mm diameter of high speed steel post-processors for several types of 5-axis machines.
(HSS). For machining programming “Advanced Machining” However, they may cause some erroneous operation during
workbench was chosen to be the main workbench as an phase reverse process that is due to unsymmetrical operation
interface in creating and generating the program. “Profile
limits about rotating axes. The configuration of 5-axis
Contouring” selected to be the major icon used in developing
milling machines may be classified into three basic types
five-axis movement on the wall cutting. Meanwhile
“Isoparametric” command used to solve the problem on five- [12] as in Figure 1, even though there may be many types
axis face cutting. A scallop height 0.01 mm was the key factors according to the cutter motion with five degrees of freedom
to make sure that the five axis program runs successfully in this (DOF).
command. The completed program posted out from CATIA
software was in “.aptsource” format. The posted program then
once again translated to “.EIA” or “.ISO” format by using a
customized post processor where the program posted to the
universal “G” and “M” codes. Ultimately, the five-axis program
runs successfully and the machined part’s dimension was
verified by using Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM).

I. INTRODUCTION
The main aim of this research was to discover the best
method or approach of machining for five-axis three
dimensional (3-D) shapes with aided by plane system and
publication command application. Five-axis machining has
received much attention in both industry and the research Fig. 1: Types of five-axis milling machines (a) table rotating/tilting (b) spindle
rotating/tilting (c) table spindle-tilting type
 Initial setup analysis is not currently provided by soon. The distance set for rapid plane from the main
commercial CAD/CAM software tools such as Unigraphics, reference was 30mm, step plane was 70mm and home plane
EdgeCam, and Vericut. However, in the academic literature, was 100mm height. In the same level of home plane, there
a few researchers have addressed the subject. Jung et al. [2] was a start point created and marked with a special
propose a general five-axis postprocessor, but the possibility indication. This was the point where all the tool changes and
programs start’s reference. The properties of these planes
of optimization has not been raised, Sijie et al. [3] optimize
and start point were depending on the programmer to decide
the position and orientation of the stock relative to the CAD
what shape or color one may choose. All the geometries
modeling surface but machine related parameters were not created must be referred to one “Work Coordinate Set”
optimized. A survey and analysis of five-axis configuration (WCS). It was a default setting by the software in any new
is given in [4–6], however, optimizing machining setups for window opened in Part Modeling workbench. The following
specific surfaces has apparently been overlooked.(1) The step was to create an independent reference of WCS. This
scallop height constraint. The scallop between the successive independent WCS will be used as an anchor in assembly the
tool tracks must not exceed the prescribed tolerance [8, 10]. main product with the plane system that we created.
(2) The local accessibility constraints. The constraint insures Publication was a process where simplification of the
against the removal of an excess material when the tool desired geometries in the same group connected to main
comes in contact with the desired surface due to the so called history tree. The main history tree played very important role
curvature interference and the surface interference [7, 11]. to make sure all the processes done by the programmer were
(3) The global accessibility constraints. The constraint recorded accordingly. Publication command was used to
ensures that the tool does not come in contact with either accumulate all the desired geometries into one group. Why
machine parts (collision detection) or unwanted parts of the we need to gather all these geometries in one file? It was
desired surface [8]. because to ease and assist the process of pick and choose
when creating and performing the machining programming.
Abbreviations and Acronyms Without using publication command, a programmer need to
Three dimensional (3-D), High Speed Steel (HSS), pick and select the desired plane each time performing the
Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM), Computer Aided
macro setting inside individual command of machining
Design (CAD), Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM),
process. In all the times, the product always appeared much
Degree of Freedom (DOF), Work Coordinate Set (WCS).
bigger than the planes created. There was always hassle in
II. METHODOLOGY choosing the exact plane when the part too big where the
The first action taken in this research was arranged a programmer needs to zoom in and out to get the desired
discussion with the respective industry to brainstorm and get plane. Publication command can be found in “tools” feature
the input for the best aerospace sample part which in the main task bar. All the three planes were selected and
appropriate to the desired requirement for the meant moved to another file named publication file. Once all the
research. Once the part finalized, the modeling of the part steps mentioned above completed, the file saved in
was created by using CATIAV5 Released 16 with all the “.CATPart” format with respective file name. This plane
dimensions in placed. In CATIAV5 all the processes system file then can be used as a template for any future
involved in modeling will be done using Sketcher, Part product that required machining programming. Figure 2
Design and Assembly workbenches. Meanwhile, Advanced below indicates all the points elaborated above regarding the
Machining workbench allows user to create their own way of plane system and publication.
machining programming. This section was considered to be
the most vital area or process because the successful of the
actual machining was determined by the success of the
program done.
An application of plane system and publication started in
the Part Design workbench. There were three different
planes created in this system namely “home plane”, “step
plane” and “rapid plane”. These three planes were the basic
planes that required in machining programming. The main
function of these planes were to make sure a programmer
aware of the limits that been set especially for rapid
movement. There were categorized into four feed rates
known as rapid, approach, retract and machining feed rates.
It was a compulsory to make sure there was no any feed rate
set in the rapid mode lower than the rapid plane. This was
because of the safety precaution that we need to consider
when performing the actual cutting in the respective machine
 the programmer will need to come back to the inertial
program to make an adjustment and amendment to overcome
Home Plane
& start point the problem. Then, the updated program needed to be rerun
again with VERICUT. Once everything clears from any
error, the program had been loaded into the desired machine
to perform actual physical machining.
Step Plane Flow Chart of Research Methodology
Publication of Rapid Plane
Literature Review and reading
all the planes material searching
WCS

Brainstorming on part selection & discussion with related

industry

Fig. 2: Plane system, WCS and publication.

Modeling with plane system and publication in placed using
CATIAV5R16 software
The following step was to assemble the product with the
saved plane system file in another workbench called
Machining programming with all parameters and machining strategy in
Assembly Design. In this workbench, the product file and the place
plane system file were called back and assembled by using
certain constraint. The final result illustrated in the figure 3.
Place order for cutting tools, raw material, jig & fixture (if required)
Once completed, the product transferred to Advanced
Machining workbench in a format of “.CATProduct” and
machining programming of the desired product began at this
Tool path No
point. verification using
VERICUT
software

YES

Plane System Transfer to actual machine and perform

the physical machining

Validate the machined part

Product

Analysis on any variation occurred compared to the

modeling given

Report and research paper writing.

Fig. 3: Product and plane system assembled in Assembly Design

workbench.

All machining parameters were filled during this process.

Completed program posted out as “.NCCODE” format file
III. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
by using integrated CATIA post processor. From this format The aerospace part selected for this research had been
obtained, the program once again will be posted to “.EIA” or
identified earlier the areas where were the five axis and three
“.ISO” format by using customized post processor. This
axis shapes. The tool used to identify the shape was known
coding format was actually universal coding used in the
as “measure” command which capable in differentiate a
common machine known as “G” and “M” language. The
plane and a surface. When the respective area identified as a
program afterwards verified visually by using VERICUT plane, it can be concluded that the area fall in the three axis
6.03 software. The main advantage of this software was the shape. On the other hand, an area identified as surface
capability of verifying the actual tool path and machine table
normally fall in the five axis shape. The figure 4 below
movement. With help of VERICUT the major collision can
shows the identified areas in the selected part for this
be avoided and the overall overview of physical machining
research.
can be visualized. If there was any problem with the program
for instance collision occurred and shown by the software,
 $$ OPERATION NAME : 773-774
$$ Start generation of : 773-774
$$ End of generation of : 773-774
$$ OPERATION NAME : CALL/CHANGE,CHG=CUCHG,T=T04,L=L04,S=S04
$$ Start generation of : CALL/CHANGE,CHG=CUCHG,T=T04,L=L04,S=S04
CALL/CHANGE,CHG=CUCHG,T=T04,L=L04,S=S04
$$ End of generation of : CALL/CHANGE,CHG=CUCHG,T=T04,L=L04,S=S04
$$ OPERATION NAME : COOLNT/ON
$$ Start generation of : COOLNT/ON
COOLNT/ON
$$ End of generation of : COOLNT/ON
$$ OPERATION NAME : Flange_1 Fnshg_Offset 0.5mm
$$ Start generation of : Flange_1 Fnshg_Offset 0.5mm
LOADTL/4,1
RAPID
GOTO / 14.00000, 9.00000, 114.93494,-0.019012, 0.016240,
0.999687
RAPID
GOTO / 91.25136, -67.82488, 114.93494,-0.019012, 0.016240,
0.999687
RAPID
GOTO / 92.86788, -69.20571, 29.93494,-0.019012, 0.016240,
0.999687
FEDRAT/ 1000.0000
GOTO / 93.51748, -69.76059, -4.22216,-0.019012, 0.016240,
0.999687
FEDRAT/ 800.0000
GOTO / 94.12013, -69.70002, -4.26434,-0.019012, 0.016240,
Fig. 4: Verification area of plane and surface 0.999687 Fig. 5: APTsource format program
GOTO / 94.77388, -69.48533, -4.31252,-0.019012, 0.016240,
0.999687
In this research, Advanced Machining workbench was used GOTO / 95.26905, -69.19591, -4.35107,-0.019012, 0.016240,
0.999687 N774G91
as the main interface to generate the movement of cutting for GOTO / G28X0.Y0.Z0.
95.46762, -69.03943, -4.36718,-0.019012, 0.016240,
0.999687 T04T00M06(LENG=143.382)
three and five-axis machining. There were three other G28X0.Y0.Z0.
popular workbenches in CATIAV5 that been using in current M19
( D=6. R=3. )
industries such as Prismatic Machining, Surface Machining M01
S2000
and Lathe Machining. The major reasons Advanced M03
M43
Machining workbench was used because the flexibility given M46
G05P2
in doing the programming, there were options given for three G00X-414.585Y-308.044Z-364.536
different machines that can be chosen and the updated G05P0
M08
integrated post processor offered by the workbench. The G05P2
X56.13Y63.535Z16.76A-1.433C49.496
flexibility meant, was in terms of making any adjustment or X-8.24Y-108.603Z-2.717
Y0.001Z-85.027
changes to the product made after the overall process G01Y-0.001Z-34.167F1000
X0.438Y-0.417Z-0.053F800
completed. The linked files automatically updated by the X0.587Y-0.356Z-0.057
software without need to redo again one file to another when X0.542Y-0.188Z-0.044
X0.247Y-0.049Z-0.017
any changes made to the recent file that one is working on. X0.675Y-0.027Z-0.039
X0.656Y0.122Z-0.03
The three options of machines given in this workbench were X0.568Y0.24Z-0.016
X0.509Y0.351Z-0.006
three-axis machine, four-axis machine with rotary table and
Fig. 6: EIA format program
five-axis machine. It can be concluded this workbench
covered the needs of today’s industries machine usage. The
There were many reasons why profile contouring was used
last but not least, was the post processor which integrated
compared to flank contouring machining command which
into the workbench giving the freedom the programmer to
purposely created especially to cater the five-axis wall
choose from the very wide selection of post such as from
movement. Part of them were the convenience in controlling
ICAM, IMS and Cenit.
the command, capable in giving open or closed loop contour
There were many machining processes available in the
and tool-axis automatically set by just finalized the bottom
workbench. It has proven that the Profile Contouring
plane geometry. The convenience offered mainly was on the
command was capable in giving the correct tool path for side
very minimum geometries that need to be defined in order to
wall cutting. Since the specification of the wall thickness
get the tool path calculated and visualized. In addition to this,
given was 1.35mm, the program need to be very thorough in
the start and end points can be represented by points, lines
order to get the result within the tolerance stated. Profile
and planes not restricted to only certain geometry. This
contouring normally used for three-axis machining.
improvement of flexibility made programming process easier
Somehow or rather in this research this command was used
and faster. Profile contouring also was used in closed contour
to create five-axis movement on the wall cutting by selecting
to replace another command called “Pocketing” machining
the bottom geometry which was not a flat surface. This
process. There were various shapes of closed contouring can
bottom geometry was a little bit slanting approximately 1.43
be created by using this command and on the same time the
degrees. The program posted out in EIA format indicated the
programmers can upgrading their skills and know how in
actual A table tilted to the certain degree to follow the
using the overall software. The last positive point that was
bottom geometry as per programmed in CATIAV5. Figures
found while exploring and utilizing this command was the
5 and 6 below show part of the posted program from
tool axis direction determined by selection of bottom plane
APTsource format converted to EIA format which given the
geometry only without need to rely on the other geometries.
five-axis movement.
By deciding the appropriate bottom geometry the tool axis
direction will be pointed perpendicularly to the selected The chosen part successfully programmed and machined in
bottom geometry regardless of the orientation of the plane the five-axis machine (MAZAK VRX-630). The material
geometry. This was the key factor that contributed to the used for this research was Aluminum 7075 series which
successful of five-axis wall cutting movement in this exactly the same material used in aerospace industry. In
research. order to be able to get the final result, few tools had been
listed. Anyway for the critical finishing area, ball nose with 6
mm diameter and end mill 10mm diameter had been chosen
to perform the actual machining. Total pure machining time
without considering the setup time, was approximately 75
minutes or 1 and a quarter hour. The most concerned
achievement was the programming time which reduction of
approximately 5 to 8 seconds in every single machining
process. Mainly, the highest contribution was from the macro
setting in the individual machining process. The completed
program for this research required nearly to 30 machining
processes. In total, approximately maximum 240 seconds or
4 minutes can be saved from one program. This was only a
Fig. 7: Profile contouring process for wall cutting.
rough calculation. Definitely there were still many criteria
Isoparametric machining command was the second popular need to be considered in getting the accurate time for the
machining command used in the machining programming for programming. Anyway, the figure obtained indicates that
this research. This command usually used to solve the shapes there was still a room in improving the programming time by
of chamfering, fillet radius and complex contouring. The introduction to plane system and publication method.
main rule that has been set in order to perform this process
was by using ball nose tools. The movement generated from
this command normally vertical downwards to upwards
direction. That was the reason why we need to use the ball
nose tool to avoid any high force cutting at the approach
level of machining which can caused high chattering and the
worst case broken the cutting tool. Isoparametric cutting
approach was using face of the cutting tool. It was a little bit
different compared to profile contouring command explained
above which using body of the tool to cut the wall or side of
the work piece. In this research it was proven that
isoparametric process capable in giving the appropriate tool
path in order to get the complex contouring cut. Scallop Fig. 9: Macro setting in Profile Contouring machining process
height was set at 0.01 mm which the smallest setting that can
be generated by the software. The final result of the
machined part was shown in the figure below. The overall
part was also verified by using Coordinate Measuring
Machine (CMM) to validate the result.

Fig. 8: Isoparametric process on the complex shape of contouring

Fig. 10: Part in CATIAV5 Modeling and completely machined

 IV. CONCLUSION [8]Lawers B,Dejonghe P, Kruth JP. Optimal and collision free tool posture
in five-axis machining through the tight integration of toll path
In this paper skill and knowledge of CADCAM were applied
generation and machine simulation.Comput-AidedDes 2003; [in press].
and utilized in order to achieve the final result of an [9 Lin R, Koren Y. Real time interpolator for machining ruled surfaces.
aerospace machined part. An application of plane system and ASME Ann Meet Proc 1994;55-2:951–60. [DSC-V.55-2].
publication method had been emphasized during performing [10 Makhanov SS. An application of the grid generation techniques to
optimize a tool-path of industrial milling robots. J Comput Math Math Phys
the machining programming throughout this research.
1999;39:1524–35.
Reduction of programming time approximately 5 to 8 [11] Rao A, Sarma R. On local gouging in five-axis sculptured surface
seconds for each individual machining process had been machining using flat end tools. CAD 2000;32:409–20. [17] Suh S-H, Shin
identified. There were two main machining processes Y-S. Neural network modeling for tool path planning of the rough cut in
complex pocket milling. J Manufact Syst 1996;15(5):
involved in this research which given the result of the five-
295–324.
axis movement on the wall cutting and face cutting of the [12] S. Sakamoto, I. Inasaki, Analysis of generating motion for five-axis
tool. The machining processes mentioned were Profile machining centers, Trans. Jpn. Soc. Mech. Engr. Ser. C 59 (561)
Contouring and Isoparametric commands. Advantages of the (1993) 1553–1559.
workbench used known as Advanced Machining and the two
machining processes stated have been discussed and briefly
explained. The output format of the program posted from the
software and generated to another format were also described
in this research to share with everybody how complicated are
the technology nowadays. A field of engineering cannot
stand alone without support from another field of
engineering. In this research manufacturing engineering is
depending on information technology and computer
engineering.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This research was carried out in Advanced Manufacturing
Center, Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM). The
supports of all staffs are gratefully acknowledged. I would
like also to express my thankful to IAC (M) Sdn. Bhd. And
AIDC Taiwan for all the guidance and experiences that been
shared together during performing this research. Last but not
least my grate appreciation goes to Professor Dr. Mohd
Razali Muhamad and En. Baharudin Abu Bakar for their full
supports and encouragement in ensuring the completion of
this research.

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