Sculptured Surface Machining (SSM) plays a vital role in the process of bringing new products to the market place. A great variety of products, from automotive body-panels to mobile phones, rely on this technology for the machining of their dies and moulds. This book documents the latest research progress and key issues affecting SSM software development. With a particular focus on the CAD/CAM environment, this book provides a rich source of reference, and covers such topics as fundamental mathematical tools, SSM-process models, process planning models and key tool-path generator (TPG), in...

On November 9-11, 1998,85 participants, representing 17 countries, gathered in Aubum Hills, Michigan, at the Chrysler Tech Center, to attend a workshop "SSM'98" (or Sculptured Surface Machining '98) organized by IFIP Working Group 5.3. This was the first major workshop on sculptured surface machining since the CAM-I sponsored conference "Machining Impossible Surfaces" held in 1981. The purpose of the SSM'98 workshop, entitled "Machining Impossible Shapes," was to promote a cross-fertilization of ideas among three communities: industrial users, CAM software developers and academic researchers....

This essential book documents the latest research progress and key issues affecting SSM software development. With a particular focus on the CAD/CAM environment, it provides a rich source of reference and covers a wide range of topics.