What is five axis machining?

According to the provisions of ISO, the right-hand rectangular coordinate system is adopted when describing the motion of NC machine tool; The coordinate axis parallel to the main axis is defined as Z axis, and the rotation coordinates around x, y and Z axes are a, B and C respectively. The movement of each coordinate axis can be realized by the workbench or the movement of the tool, but the direction is defined by the movement direction of the tool relative to the workpiece. Generally, five axis linkage refers to the linear interpolation motion of any five coordinates in X, y, Z, a, B and C.

In other words, the five axes refer to the three moving axes x, y and Z plus any two rotating axes. Compared with the common three-axis machining (x, y and Z degrees of freedom), five axis machining refers to the machining of parts with complex geometry, which requires the machining tool to be able to locate and connect on the five degrees of freedom.

The machine tool used in five axis machining is usually called five axis machine tool or five axis machining center. Five axis machining is often used in aerospace field to process body parts, turbine parts and impellers with free-form surfaces. The five axis machine tool can process different sides of the workpiece without changing the position of the workpiece on the machine tool, which can greatly improve the processing efficiency of prismatic parts.