Introducing minimum energy tool path in 5-axis flank milling

This paper deals with a surface based-approach for 5-axis flank milling of complex surfaces. The surface representation of the tool trajectory allows globally minimizing the geometrical deviations between the machined surface and the designed surface. However, within the context of high-speed machining, the smoothness of the calculated tool trajectory is essential to ensure high performance machining. Indeed, oscillatory trajectories may penalize process efficiency. Taking advantages of the surface based approach, the smoothness of the trajectory can be controlled through the estimation of the energy of deformation of the tool path surface. Minimum energy tool paths lead to minimal machining time. As geometrical deviations are not minimised for minimum energy tool paths, a compromise must be done to find the best solution.