Abstract
The present CNC machining system if without any CAM software has been limited to 2D or 2.5D plane cut using lines, arcs and curves. If the CNC is equipped with a surface interpolation module and a surface reorganizing module inside it, we can easily try 3D surface machining without aid of CAM software. The existing NURBS surface interpolator is simple and direct to use for a unit surface. However, it enables only machining of each reference surface individually even when machining a simple composite surface. In this paper, we propose a method which can unify and reorganize various reference surfaces with a newly defined NURBS surface cycle command: a multi-repetitive cycle command such as in a CNC turning center. We also introduce a reorganizing rule for reference surfaces using NURBS properties. The usefulness of the proposed method is verified through computer simulation.