OneCNC Research and Development has been having a real ball.

OneCNC Research and Development team over the past 2 years has continued development in 5 axis machining tool paths.
As part of this development many part examples have been created and machined by our engineers in the process.
This is part of the process used in testing and proving the practical results by actually machining components.
To prove the full development from model creation through to testing of the machined component it was chosen to create a spherical soccer ball for this test.
Rather than just CNC lathe turning a sphere and grooving it like a soccer ball it was decided to create the ball using a CNC machining centre.
This required modelling a hexagonal and polygon piece to be used to form the ball.
The segments were then assembled by rotation and copying around an axis to completely form the ball.
This was to test the original model segments and then test the rotation and copying of the components of the ball.
The required CNC tool paths were then created for the machining process in the 5 axis machining centre.

This graphic shows the completed model of segment pieces formed to create the soccer ball model.

This graphic shows the segments of hexagonal and polygon pieces being rotated and assembled around a common axis to form the soccer ball model.

The soccer ball was then CNC programmed in OneCNC to create roughing, semi-finishing and finishing tool paths
The completed toolpaths were electronically transferred to the machining centre for machining from a piece of solid aluminium bar stock.

Here we show the solid bar stock being machined in a 5 axis simultaneous Hermle Machining Centre.

After the machining was completed the finished ball was transferred to our Brown and Sharpe coordinate measuring machine for accuracy validation.
The completed ball was measured and found to be within the '004 mm machining tolerance as set in OneCNC when creating the CNC tool paths.

This graphic shows the machined ball being tested for accuracy

To enable our test and validation to be kept as proof of accuracy and evidence of our research and development we mounted the ball on a stand for keeping in our technical centre in Brisbane.

This graphic shows the completed ball anodised and mounted on a stand.

OneCNC filmed the process of creating the soccer ball and the machining process to create the final part as shown in this video.

For further information on OneCNC products or information on machining 5 axis simultaneous please contact your local OneCNC Office.

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