On-line wear detection of milling tools using a displacement fiber optic sensor

 

E. Castillo-Castañeda

 

Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro, Facultad de Ingeniería, Centro Universitario, 76010. Querétaro, México. Tel: (442) 216 3959 ext. 227, Fax: (442) 216 3599 ext. 103 E-mail: ecast@sunserver.uaq.mx

 

Received: August 23^th 2001.
Accepted: March 5^th 2002.

 

ABSTRACT

A cost-effective technique for on-line wear monitoring of a milling tool is presented. The tool wear is estimated directly from a fiber optic sensor with high resolution and high bandwidth characteristics. This sensor provides a distance measurement between its probe and the tool profile. The contribution of this work is the application of this sensor to sense on-line wear of a milling tool. Since the light emitted by this sensor comes from a photodiode, it does not produce eye damage, this is safer than laser displacement sensors. This technique senses the tool wear in real time, while the tool is rotating, with an accuracy less than 1 micron. Experimental results are also presented for a four-flank cutting tool rotating at 300 rpm.

Keywords: Optical inspection, Wear detection, Tool condition monitoring, Fiber optic sensors.

 

RESUMEN

Se presenta una técnica de alto costo-beneficio para el monitoreo en línea del desgaste de una herramienta de fresado. El desgaste es estimado directamente a partir de un sensor de fibra óptica con características de alta resolución y alto ancho de banda. Uno de esos grupos transmite luz y el otro grupo recibe la luz reflejada desde una superficie objetivo. La contribución de este trabajo es la aplicación de este sensor para monitorear en línea el desgaste de una herramienta de fresado. Ya que la luz emitida por este sensor proviene de un fotodiodo, esta no produce daño a los ojos, esto la hace más segura que los sensores de desplazamiento láser. Esta técnica permite monitorear el desgaste de la herramienta en tiempo real mientras la herramienta gira, con una precisión inferior a 1 micra. También se presentan resultados experimentales para una herramienta de corte con cuatro filos que gira a 300 rpm.

 

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Mexican Council for Science and Technology (CONACYT), project number 26265-A. The author would like to express his gratitude to the Universidad Autónoma de Queretaro, Mexico, for giving its support to develop this project.

 

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