SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR REAL-TIME MONITORING OF MICROMILLING TOOL WEAR

摘要

The wear status of a micro-endmill tool may be inferred by monitoring the chip production rate of the tool in operation. Chips may be extracted from a work area, captured on an adhesive surface, imaged, and counted to determine the chip production rate. When the rate of chip production falls, the feed rate of the micro-endmill may be increased to a level suitable for the current state of tool wear. In this manner, costly and inconvenient work stoppages to evaluate the wear status of a tool are eliminated.

主权项

1. A tool wear monitoring system, comprising:
a skirt couplable to a micro-endmill to contain chips produced during operation of the micro-endmill; a tube coupled to the skirt, the tube configured to extract air from the skirt and carry the chips to a nozzle; an adhesive tape disposed at an outlet of the nozzle to catch chips exiting the nozzle; a conveyor belt to move the adhesive tape into the field of view of a camera; the camera operative to obtain images of the chips on the adhesive tape; and a software program operative on a computing device to count the chips from the images.