Described in this thesis is a procedure of designing and machining sculptured surface which is specified by a spine axis curve and cross-sections at various points along the spine axis. A large class of engineering products can be conveniently described by a design axis and cross-sections. Examples include process pump volute, various type of bottles, industrial ducts, and exhaustion paths in automobile engines.
A generalized cross-sectional design method is employed in defining the sculptured surface. Both the generalized design axis and cross-sections are defined as composite Bezier curves of degree three. Thus the resulting surface is a composite bicubic parametric surface. To obtain a smooth surface while satisfying the design specifications (design axis and cross-sections), a new method of determining intermediate Bezier Control points is proposed. Cutter location data (CL-data) can be generated either in parametric directions or in cartesian directions. The procedure is implemented in FOPTRAN.
