A Virtual Environment for Machining Operations Simulation and Machining Evaluation

Virtual Environments for Surface Roughness Determination

Huang and Oliver (1994) developed a system for machining processes simulation in a five axes CNC machine. The system aims at the improvement of the workpiece machined surface quality by improving the cutter path. Ko et. al. (2003) developed a Virtual Manufacturing system for the determination of optimum feedrate values in 2.5 axis machining processes that provides the ability to determine cutting forces in order to improve the machined surface quality. Qui et al. (2001) and Ong et al. (2002) presented a system developed in VRML for material removal simulation. The system provides information about the required time for the completion of the machining process and quantitative data like the cutting forces, machined surface roughness, required energy and cutter wear. Bowyer et al. (1996) developed a simulation system for several types of machining operations that could be employed for design, modeling and implementation of production plans in the virtual environment, aiming at errors detection in the executed operations.