In-cycle monitoring of tool nose wear and surface roughness of turned parts using machine vision

Abstract

Tool wear has been extensively studied in the past due to its effect on the surface quality of the finished product. Vision-based systems using a CCD camera are increasingly being used for measurement of tool wear due to their numerous advantages compared to indirect methods. Most research into tool wear monitoring using vision systems focusses on off-line measurement of wear. The effect of wear on surface roughness of the workpiece is also studied by measuring the roughness off-line using mechanical stylus methods. In this work, a vision system using a CCD camera and backlight was developed to measure the surface roughness of the turned part without removing it from the machine in-between cutting processes, i.e. in-cycle. An algorithm developed in previous work was used to automatically correct tool misalignment using the images and measure the nose wear area. The surface roughness of turned parts measured using the machine vision system was verified using the mechanical stylus method. The nose wear was measured for different feed rates and its effect on the surface roughness of the turned part was studied. The results showed that surface roughness initially decreased as the machining time of the tool increased due to increasing nose wear and then increased when notch wear occurred.