Cylindrical slot milling on a curved surface

[daanuijl]

Hi,

I'm currently working on a project where I will be using a 6 axis robot with a milling application to mill holes (with diameters up to 600mm) in tubes (diameters up to 3000mm). I want to make the hole by milling a cylindrical slot, but would prefer to leave tabs to prevent the leftover circle from falling.

I have tried al lot of different milling operations and am unsure what would be the best one to continue with. I have attached some pictures of a Trace and 2D contour that I have tried. The problem with 2D contour is that a large percentage of the operation is unneccessary since it's just milling in empty space, but it does give me the option to leave tabs. The Trace operation looks promessing since it only mills where needed, but doesn't have the ability to leave tabs.

Is there a better way of doing this?

I would appreciate your help and please let me know if you need more information.

Thank in advance,

Daan

[a.laasW8M6T]

Hi

You can do tabs with trace but you must model the edges where you want the trace toolpath to go up and over.

I did this in the attached example with offset planes used as tools for the split face tool

this is a bit of messing around but it works quite well.

Another not so good option is to use the toolpath trimming tool to cut down some of the 2D contour path to reduce air cutting  but its not that pretty or efficient.

A third also not great option but may be acceptable is to use the wrap function in 2D contour, you can still use tabs but the path follows the curve better, at the expense of over cutting on the sides due to tool tilt.

Someone else may have some better ideas, this is all I can think of ATM