Abstract
This paper presents a tool wear monitoring methodology on the abrasive belt grinding process using vibration and force signatures on a convolutional neural network (CNN). A belt tool typically has a random orientation of abrasive grains and grit size variation for coarse or fine material removal. Degradation of the belt condition is a critical phenomenon that affects the workpiece quality during grinding. This work focuses on the identifation and the study of force and vibrational signals taken from sensors along an axis or combination of axes that carry important information of the contact conditions, i.e., belt wear. Three axes of the two sensors are aligned and labelled as X-axis (parallel to the direction of the tool during the abrasive process), Y-axis (perpendicular to the direction of the tool during the abrasive process) and Z-axis (parallel to the direction of the tool during the retract movement). The grinding process was performed using a customized abrasive belt grinder attached to a multi-axis robot on a mild-steel workpiece. The vibration and force signals along three axes (X, Y and Z) were acquired for four discrete sequential belt wear conditions: brand-new, 5-min cycle time, 15-min cycle time, and worn-out. The raw signals that correspond to the sensor measurement along the different axes were used to supervisedly train a 10-Layer CNN architecture to distinguish the belt wear states. Different possible combinations within the three axes of the sensors (X, Y, Z, XY, XZ, YZ and XYZ) were fed as inputs to the CNN model to sort the axis (or combination of axes) in the order of distinct representation of the belt wear state. The CNN classification results revealed that the combination of the XZ-axes and YZ-axes of the accelerometer sensor provides more accurate predictions than other combinations, indicating that the information from the Z-axis of the accelerometer is significant compared to the other two axes. In addition, the CNN accuracy of the XY-axes combination of dynamometer outperformed that of other combinations.
Highlights
In manufacturing industries, the requirements for high-quality precision parts with complex geometries have been increasing rapidly [1,2,3]
This paper presents a tool wear monitoring methodology on the abrasive belt grinding process using vibration and force signatures on a convolutional neural network (CNN)
Even though CNN takes higher computational time and hardware resources compared to traditional machine learning (ML) methods (support vector machine (SVM), artificial neural network (ANN) and adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) etc.), they are very efficient in processing raw data with minimum pre-processing
Summary
The requirements for high-quality precision parts with complex geometries have been increasing rapidly [1,2,3]. The quality of surface finish for a complex geometry part in manufacturing processes, e.g., grinding and polishing, depends primarily on two main variables, i.e., (1) the condition of belt grinding tool and (2) the combination of operating parameters such as cutting speed, force, feed rate, polymer wheel hardness and grit size. The polishing process parameters are an important aspect as they must be adaptable during the manufacturing process depending on certain scenarios or condition such as (1) the curvature shape of the workpiece, (2) the changes in abrasive tool wear condition, (3) the hardness of the workpiece, which is generally not fully uniform and (4) the area of the workpiece being manufacture, e.g., at the edges or toward the part center. This study focuses on predicting belt grinding tool condition from brand-new to wear with certain manufacturing parameters
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