On-line drill wear state monitoring by virtual instrumentation in machining of mild steel

Abstract

On-line drill wear state monitoring and effective tool replacement at proper time is an impodant technique to be developed to realize a fully automated manufacturing system. In this study, the standard data acquisition software LabVIEW (Laboratory Vimal Imtmmentation Engineering Workbench), in the application of vimal imtmmentation is used to predct the drill wear states. Drilling operations have been performed in mild steel workpiece by High-Speed Steel (HSS) drill bits over a wide range of varying cutting condtions. The effective drill wear models are established based on the relationship between cutting current signals and the varying cutting parameters (cutting speed, feed and drill diameter). The cutting tool status is continuously monitored and the degree of drill wear is dsplayed as a percentage of the maximum permissible wear. LabVIEW facilitates defective tool replacement at the proper time based on drill wear states in the automated manufacturing environment. The effectiveness and reliability of the method are verified by experimental results. © 2012 Asian Network for Scientific Information.