Constant scallop height tool-paths for machining sculptured surfaces

Using a constant scallop height tool-path planning procedure enables the manufacturer to produce a sculptured surface using a ball-end mill with a prescribed surface quality; i.e., a constant scallop height throughout the surface. Moreover, it gives the manufacturer a way to begin the milling from a prescribed original path; i.e., a wing profile. In this thesis, we present a side-step function to generate a variable distance offset using a constant scallop height condition. After that we introduce an analytical approximation of the exact constant scallop height offset. We also introduce three different methods to find and reduce the error resulting from this approximation. If any self-intersections exist in the variable distance offset, we give a mean to identify and trim the self-intersections. The constant scallop height offsets generated by this procedure are used as cutter-contact paths. Finally, we use the Pythagorean-Hodograph space curves to generate constant scallop height toolpaths, which are used to produce constant height cutter-contact paths. Some manufactured examples are given to show the implementation of this tool-path planning procedure and its performance in comparison to the other tool-path planning procedures.