An Optimal Tool Selection Method for Pocket Machining

포켓형상가공을 위한 최적공구 선정방법

In process planning for pocket machining, the selection of tool size, tool path, overlap distance, and the calculation of machining time are very important factors to obtain the optimal process planning result. Among those factors, the tool size is the most important one because the others depend on tool size. And also, it is not easy to determine the optimal tool size even though the shape of pocket is simple. Therefore, the optimal selection of tool size is the most essential task in process planning for machining a pocket. This paper presents a method for selecting optimal toos in pocket machining. The branch and bound method is applied to select the optimal tools which minimize the machining time by using the range of feasible tools and the breadth-first search.