Mitsubishi Electric develops ultra-high resolution 3D shape representation technology

Mitsubishi Electric announced today that it has developed ultra-high resolution 3D shape representation technology for numerically controlled (NC) machine tools. The technology displays detailed shapes of machined surfaces down to a resolution of 1 micrometer (um) in a 3D machining simulation, which machine operators can use to evaluate surface textures without trial cutting through a high quality machining process. Complex shapes are displayed with limited data using Mitsubishi Electric’s unique Multi-ADF (adaptive distance field) shape-representation technology.


The 3D representation of multi-ADF proprietary technology developed recently by Mitsubishi Electric uses less than 1% of the storage capacity required by conventional, high-resolution geometric model resolutions at the 1 micron level. Multi-ADF represents 3D shapes with a set of tiny cubes each with refined descriptions of multiple surfaces on them. This technology makes it possible to display dents and scratches on machined surfaces down to a resolution of one micrometer using fewer cubes, allowing high-speed simulations that require little memory.