Abstract
The patch division milling which can generate a geometric pattern with a ball-end mill was applied to a curved surface. The surface is divided into a lot of just about same size small triangle patch segments. The whole inside area of each triangle patches is machined along a helical tool path. In this study, the method for patch division on curved surfaces, generation of tool path and the control of tool rotation angle which align geometric pattern are described. Tool rotation angle is calculated from vertex coordinates from each triangle patches, number of flutes, feed per tooth and cross feed rate. From the results of experiments, it is shown that the patch division milling can generate the aligned geometric pattern inside area of each triangle patches on the curved surface.
