Brilliant Glass Cutting using CAD/CAM

Summary

Brilliant glass cutting is a decorative process in which a series of shaped grinding and polishing wheels are used to cut patterns into flat glass.

Brilliant cut glass is currently gaining in popularity and both domestic and export markets are expanding. However supply problems are inhibiting growth. These relate to a shortage of skilled labour, the long processing times inherent in a generally manual process and the difficulty of recruitment.

It has been identified that an integrated CAD/CAM system might provide a solution. The object of the research being done is to investigate and examine this hypothesis. To do so a prototype system is being built.

The heart of the system is a five-axis cartesian robot. Three linear and two rotational axes being required to generate the free form curves of hand brilliant cutting. The robot moves a small grinding wheel using programmes generated by a dedicated CAM system. The design of the product is input using a simple 2D CAD package.

This paper describes the work done to date.