CASTING PROCEDURE

 

CNC MILLED MOULD

Foamboard was used to produce moulds as they were cost effective. Using a low cost material was crucial to the aspect of mass production of bricks. Also, it was important to choose a soft foamboard to make the demoulding process easy.

 

CREATING A TOOL PATH

Autodesk Fusion 360 was used to the define most convenient tool path of CNC machine in terms of time efficiency and quality. The tool path design has played an important role in defining sharp edges and complex geometry of brick. In this context, Fusion CAM proved most helpful due to its great extent of work flows and cleaning strategies for milling. Pocket Cleaning and Parallel Cleaning were two of these strategies that have been used intensely in the milling process.

 

POCKET CLEANING

Pocket Cleaning was used as a conventional roughing strategy for clearing large quantities of material quickly and effectively. The stock is cleared layer by layer with smooth offset contours maintaining climb milling throughout the operation.

 

PARALLEL CLEANING

Parallel Cleaning was used as a finishing strategy in which the passes are parallel in the XY plane and follow the surface in the Z-direction. We were able to control the angle and stepover in horizontal direction to give exact shape to our moulds.

 

CNC CUTTING

The generated tool path was uploaded in the Shopbot milling machine and the milling process is initiated. Two types of tips were used for two different types of cleaning. Pocket cleaning uses a thicker tip and Parallel cleaning uses a thinner tip