Advanced Milling with Powermill and the Kuka Robot

Digital Media Tutorial Written by Eric Kurzenberger

This tutorial directly continues the process we began in the Milling with Powermill on the Kuka Robot tutorial and will walk you through creating multi-axis nishing toolpaths for your model. Well also cover some other useful features of Powermill, such as collision checking, limiting toolpaths, and using workplanes to orient the tool and change your base point. Were assuming here that youve read and followed the previous Milling with Powermill tutorial; if you havent, please do so before continuing on. What is Multi-Axis Milling? In standard 3-axis milling, which is what we do on the mills, the part moves in the X axis, and the tool moves in the Y and Z axes. 3-axis milling can also be done on the robot: the tool stays aligned in the Z-axis and moves along the X, Y and Z axes. In multi-axis milling (also known as 5-axis milling, despite the fact that it can involve 4 axes or more) using the robot, the tool does not stay aligned in the Z axis and can be moved in multiple axes simultaneously. Multi-axis toolpaths can be more trickier to create, but they give you the advantage of being able to do complex cuts without having to reorient your part, enabling you to do better nishing work and detailing that would be impossible in 3-axis milling.

I.

Using the Kuka Head Tool Holder

In the previous tutorial, we created a simple 3-axis roughing toolpath to clear away material as quickly as possible, giving us the rough outline of our model. Next, well do a preliminary nishing toolpath that will give our model more detail. But before we create the toolpath, we should change our tool holder. In the previous tutorial, we did a simple clearance pass using the default tool holder, which for many mill jobs wouldnt create a problem. With our example model, however, there are some narrow spaces that the robot head may have difculty tting into without gouging our material. To better simulate the actual milling conditions, we can use a holder that approximates the size of the robot head and check our toolpath against collisions with that head. In Powermill, right click on Tools in the Explorer pane and choose Create Tool > From Database to open the Tool Database Search window. Select the tool you want to use--in this case, Ill use the 12.74mm ball end. In the Holder eld, select Specied Holder and Kuka head in the eld next to it. Youll see your full tool in the Tool Assembly Preview pane, complete with a large holder with the same dimensions as the robot head.

Click Create Tools to add the tool to your Tools list and make it active, then click Close to close the window. Youll see your new tool appear in the model view and see it listed in bold in the Tools list, indicating that its the active tool. Now you can create your rst nishing pass.

II. Creating a Finishing Pass

Right-click on Toolpaths in the Explorer pane and select Create Toolpaths. In the Strategy Selector window that opens, click on the Finishing tab.

Youll see a wide variety of toolpaths here, most of which wont be applicable. Many of these toolpaths are intended for smaller, more detailed models such as mechanical parts or dies, which are meant to be milled from metal with a high degree of accuracy, and which require creating adding specic geometry to your model such as planes and curves. For large architectural models of the type youll most likely be doing, these toolpaths wont be used. For my model, Im going to do a Raster Finishing toolpath, which, as the name and preview imply, will do a raster cut across the model. Click OK to create the toolpath and open the Raster Finishing window.

Name: Ill call this topnish, to distinguish it from the side nishing toolpaths that Ill be doing later. Tolerance: as this is a nishing pass, Ill use a lower tolerance of 0.1 mm Thickness: 0.0 will leave no extra material; remember that thickness should be greater than tolerance unless the thickness is set to 0.

Stepover: 4.0 (remember that stepdown should be about 1/3 to 1/2 of your tool diameter Ordering: One Way cuts in one direction only, doing a cutting pass one way across the model, then doing an air move back the other way; Two Way cuts in both directions, taking less time but not giving as good a cut

Other options can be left at defaults. Click Apply to apply the toolpath to your model, and Cancel to close the window.

You can now see your nishing toolpath applied to your model and can simulate it if desired following the instructions in the previous tutorial. Note that if youre using the Viewmill simulation that shows the block of material being milled, youll have to simulate the clearance toolpath and then the nishing toolpath to get an accurate simulation. Verifying Your Toolpath Your nishing toolpath will now show up in the list of toolpaths in the Explorer pane. However, if the toolpath has something other than a green checkmark next to it, that indicates there may be a problem with the toolpath.
Red ! : Tool or holder is unsafe Yellow ? : Tool safety is unknown, holder safety is unknown or safe White checkmark: Tool is safe, holder is unknown

To verify your toolpath, click the Toolpath Verication button in the Powermill toolbar to open the Toolpath Verication window.

Check: sets whether to check Collisions (which checks the toolpath against the tool holder and shank) or Gouges (which checks against the cutter). Split Toolpath: allows you to output the safe moves or unsafe moves or both to new toolpaths. Split Moves: splits individual unsafe moves into safe and unsafe portions, rather than tagging the entire move as unsafe. Calculate Collision Depth: calculate the depth of the tool collision; if this is checked, you can also check Adjust Tool to have Powermill automatically create a new tool with dimensions that will avoid a collision. Draw Unsafe Moves: highlights colliding moves in the toolpath. Click Apply to run the verication.

If the verication process nds errors, youll see a window listing those errors and recommendations on how to avoid them.

If youve chosen to split the toolpath, output safe moves and unsafe moves, and adjust the tool, youll see a number of things have been changed: a new tool has been created with the safe dimensions calculated by the verication process two new toolpaths have been created, one containing only the safe moves of the original toolpath, the other containing the unsafe moves run by the new safe tool the original toolpath has been modied to run using the safe tool the green checkmark next to each toolpath shows that all of these toolpaths are veried safe This gives you two options for safely running this job. You can either run the original toolpath using the new safe tool if you have a tool with these dimensions, or run the safe toolpath using your original tool and hand-nish the parts that cant be reached
NOTE: The toolpath verication may recommend using a tool that is longer than you should use. While there are tool extenders available, its important to remember that the longer the tool, the greater the stress on the tool and the greater the possibility that the tool could break. The shorter the tool, the faster you can safely run it. For speed and for safety, you should always use as short a tool as possible.

III. Working with Workplanes

On my example model, I would like to mill the areas under the overhangs of the top shell, but this area is inaccessible with conventional 3-axis milling, where the tool stays parallel to the universal Z axis. What I can do in this situation is create a workplane, a new coordinate system, with the Zaxis at a different angle that allows me to reach those previously inaccessible areas. To create a workplane, right click on Workplanes in the Explorer pane and select Create Workplane. This will open the Workplane window.
Name: Ill call this workplane rightmill, as Ill be milling the right side of the model. (Im using the perspective of standing where the robot would be, facing the model, but you can use whatever makes sense to you.)

Active Workplane: rightmill. This will make the workplane being created the active one, and show how it is oriented, with the red XYZ axes indicating the orientation of the new workplane. The axes drawn with a white outline are the master axes of the model. Relative Position and Rotate: these buttons allow you to move and rotate the workplane in the X, Y and Z axes using the Distance and Angle entered in the respective elds.

In my example, I want to orient the Z axis of my new workplane along the master Y axis of the model; to get this orientation, Ill need to rotate Z 90 degrees around the X axis by entering 90 for the Angle and clicking the Rotate X button.

Before rotating around X

After rotating around X

NOTE: If needed, you can use the X, Y and Z Position buttons to move the position of the origin of this new workplane the specied distance (in millimeters or inches), which can be helpful if you want to move your origin without having to re-orient your model in Rhino and re-import it.

Once you have your workplane oriented properly, click Accept to create the new workplane and close the window. Youll now see this workplane listed under Workplanes.

Now that youve created your new workplane, right click on the tool you want to use to activate it, then click on the Rapid Move Heights button. In the Rapid Move Heights window, select your new workplane and click Reset to Safe Heights to move the tool to a save location on your new workplane to start your new toolpath. Then click Accept to close the window. Youll now see your tool reoriented in the model view.
NOTE: the location and orientation of the tool is where the robot will start the toolpath you create for this workplane, so it is essential that you make sure this is a safe location. In my example, if I did not raise my block off the oor when milling, starting a toolpath from this point would result in the robot head hitting the oor. If necessary, you can move your base when creating the workplane as described above to make sure your start point is in a safe location.

With this workplane active, you can now create a nishing toolpath with the tool in this orientation just as you did above for the topnish toolpath. In my example, Ill create a toolpath called rightnish with the same settings as my topnish toolpath, with one exception: Ive changed the Start Corner to Upper Left so that my toolpath doesnt start at the bottom of the model, which could cause a collision with the oor. When creating a toolpath, you can use the Preview button to get a preview of how your toolpath will run without having to create it: the tool will start at the white arrow and run along the white lines. In my example, the preview shows that my toolpath is starting at a safe location, so I can create it by clicking Apply and closing the window. Theres a problem with this toolpath, however: its attempting to nish the entire model, rather than just the overhang section that I want to nish. To correct this, Im going to limit the toolpath to that specic area.

IV. Limiting a Toolpath

To limit a toolpath, make sure its active, then right-click on it under the list of toolpaths in the Explorer pane and select Edit > Limit. This will open the Toolpath Limit window. In this window, you can create planes which will act as boundaries for the toolpath.
Limit to: Plane Type: select the axis you want the plane to be in. Plane Z is the plane that is perpendicular to the Z axis (note that this is the Z axis in the ACTIVE workplane, which has the coordinate system in red, not in the master workplane).

The plane you have selected will show up in white on your model; the arrows on the plane point in the direction of the part of the toolpath that you which to keep when you limit the path; the rest will be discarded. To change the direction of the arrows on the plane, change the Save select box from Inner to Outer or vice versa. To move the plane along its axis, you can modify the number in the Point box in that particular plane.

In my example, Ill limit using the Z plane -200mm from the active workplanes origin, which means its situated 200mm along the negative Z axis. Once you have your plane oriented properly, you can click Apply to limit the toolpath to that plane. You can then create more planes to create a box containing the toolpath to a specic area.

Toolpath before limiting

Limited toolpath

Note that, each time you apply a limit to a toolpath, your toolpath isnt actually modied; instead, a new toolpath is created with just the limited path. This allows you to revert back to your original toolpath if needed. In my example, Ive ended up with multiple rightnish toolpaths; I can delete all of them except for the last one created, and rename that last one rightnish.
NOTE: Remember, the tool (and the robot head) will go wherever its directed to go in your toolpath. When using workplanes, its vital that you reset the tool to safe heights and pay attention to where the tool is as the start of a toolpath. Even if the toolpath is limited, the robot may move the tool to the location of the toolpaths original starting point, and then begin the limited toolpath. Always reset to safe heights before creating a toolpath, and verify that that safe height location is one which the robot head can move to safely.

V.

Creating and Writing the NC Program

You can follow the same steps as documented in the previous tutorial for creating and writing an NC program for your toolpaths. Note, in the settings for your NC program, make sure to leave the Output Workplane blank, even if youre using a custom workplane in your toolpath. Also, just a reminder, while you can include multiple toolpaths in a single NC program, its best to create an individual NC program for each toolpath. If you try to combine multiple toolpaths into a single program, you may encounter collisions when the tool moves from one workplane to another or nd that your program has become to large for the robots limited memory.