Masatomo Inui

Fast inverse offset computation using polygon rendering hardware

Mold and die parts are usually fabricated using 3-axis numerically controlled milling machines with ball-end, flat-end or round-end cutters. The cutter location (CL) surface representing a trajectory surface of the cutters reference point when the cutter is slid over a part is important for preventing the gouging problem. This surface is equivalent to the inverse offset shape of the part, which is the top surface of the swept volume of the inverse cutter moving around the part surface. The author proposes a fast computation method of the inverse offset shape of a polyhedral part using the hidden-surface elimination mechanism of the polygon rendering hardware. In this method, the CL surface is obtained by simply rendering the component objects of the swept volume. An experimental program is implemented and demonstrated.

Using a GPU to Accelerate Die and Mold Fabrication

The authors present a GPU-based method for generating and verifying cutter paths for numerically controlled milling. A CAM system based on this technology is now employed in production at Mazda Motor Corporation for manufacturing stamping dies. This system can compute cutter paths more than 20 times faster than previous methods

Visualizing sphere-contacting areas on automobile parts for ECE inspection

Abstract To satisfy safety regulations of Economic Commission for Europe (ECE), the surface regions of automobile parts must have a sufficient degree of roundness if there is any chance that they could contact a sphere of 50.0xa0mm radius (exterior parts) or 82.5xa0mm radius (interior parts). In this paper, a new offset-based method is developed to automatically detect the possible sphere-contacting shape of such parts. A polyhedral model that precisely approximates the part shape is given as input, and the offset shape of the model is obtained as the Boolean union of the expanded shapes of all surface triangles. We adopt a triple-dexel representation of the 3D model to enable stable and precise Boolean union computations. To accelerate the dexel operations in these Boolean computations, a new parallel processing method with a pseudo-list structure and axis-aligned bounding box is developed. The possible sphere-contacting shape of the part surface is then extracted from the offset shape as a set of points or a set of polygons.

Automatic detection of the optimal ejecting direction based on a discrete Gauss map

Abstract In this paper, the authors propose a system for assisting mold designers of plastic parts. With a CAD model of a part, the system automatically determines the optimal ejecting direction of the part with minimum undercuts. Since plastic parts are generally very thin, many rib features are placed on the inner side of the part to give sufficient structural strength. Our system extracts the rib features from the CAD model of the part, and determines the possible ejecting directions based on the geometric properties of the features. The system then selects the optimal direction with minimum undercuts. Possible ejecting directions are represented as discrete points on a Gauss map. Our new point distribution method for the Gauss map is based on the concept of the architectural geodesic dome. A hierarchical structure is also introduced in the point distribution, with a higher level “rough” Gauss map with rather sparse point distribution and another lower level “fine” Gauss map with much denser point distribution. A system is implemented and computational experiments are performed. Our system requires less than 10 seconds to determine the optimal ejecting direction of a CAD model with more than 1 million polygons.

A GPU based Algorithm for Determining the Optimal Cutting Direction in Deep Mold Machining

Large molds with very deep shape are well used in producing bumpers and inner panels of automobiles. In order to realize the precise and stable machining of such deep molds, 3-axis milling with inclined cutters are often applied. In this paper, we propose a new algorithm for determining the optimal cutting direction in such inclined machining. We introduce a concept of accessibility cone as a measure for evaluating the stability and safety in the inclined machining, and we define the optimal cutting direction as the direction whose corresponding accessibility cone has the maximum peak angle. An accessibility cone for a specific cutting direction can be derived by rendering a silhouette picture of the offset shape of the mold. This computation can be accelerated by using a graphics processing unit (GPU) which is now equipped in most PCs. Proposed algorithm is implemented and an experimental process planning assistance program using this technology is demonstrated.

Thickness and clearance visualization based on distance field of 3D objects

Abstract This paper proposes a novel method for visualizing the thickness and clearance of 3D objects in a polyhedral representation. The proposed method uses the distance field of the objects in the visualization. A parallel algorithm is developed for constructing the distance field of polyhedral objects using the GPU. The distance between a voxel and the surface polygons of the model is computed many times in the distance field construction. Similar sets of polygons are usually selected as close polygons for close voxels. By using this spatial coherence, a parallel algorithm is designed to compute the distances between a cluster of close voxels and the polygons selected by the culling operation so that the fast shared memory mechanism of the GPU can be fully utilized. The thickness/clearance of the objects is visualized by distributing points on the visible surfaces of the objects and painting them with a unique color corresponding to the thickness/clearance values at those points. A modified ray casting method is developed for computing the thickness/clearance using the distance field of the objects. A system based on these algorithms can compute the distance field of complex objects within a few minutes for most cases. After the distance field construction, thickness/clearance visualization at a near interactive rate is achieved.

Shrinking sphere: A parallel algorithm for computing the thickness of 3D objects

AbstractAn interactive system is required to enable machine designers to precisely visualize the thickness of a machine part. The thickness of a 3D object at a surface point is given by the diameter of the maximum inscribed sphere (MIS) touching that point. In this paper, we propose a novel iterative algorithm, namely, the shrinking sphere algorithm, for computing the MIS at a specific surface point. The convergence speed of the proposed algorithm is very high, and several iterations are usually sufficient for obtaining the MIS. The parallel execution of the algorithm with a graphics processing unit (GPU) is presented for further improving the computation speed. On the basis of the proposed algorithm, an experimental thickness visualization system is implemented using Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA). This system can visualize the thickness of a complex object with nearly two million polygons in several minutes using a PC (Core i7 CPU, 32GB memory and GTX-980 GPU), which is sufficiently fast for...

An algorithm for determining the optimal cutter length in 3-axis milling

Fixed 3-axis milling has been the most popular method for the die and mold fabrication. Determining the optimal cutter length is a time consuming and critical task in process planning, especially for milling deep and complex molds for bumpers, inner panels and lighting components of automobiles. In this paper, the authors propose an inverted offset based method for automatically determining the optimal cutter length. Inverted offsetting is one of Minkowski sum operation with a solid model and an inverted shape of a milling cutter. In the 3-axis milling, the optimal cutter length can be derived by comparing two inverted offsetting results: an object from the part shape and the inverted cutter, and another object from the workpiece shape representing the prior machining result and the inverted zero length cutter. An experimental system is developed and some computational experiments are performed to confirm the practical applicability of the method.