The application of artificial neural networks to produce quality monitoring

Condition monitoring (CM) involves monitoring the condition of a machine in an attempt to detect adverse changes that would indicate that the performance of the machine is falling. CM has been used here to associate signal analysis information with Surface Finish to help detect the decline in output quality and initiate corrective measures. This paper reports the results of acquiring vibration readings during the cutting operation of a centre lathe and analysing the data off-line. The process of using Artificial Neural Networks to classify the measured signature analysis data into distinguished classes of Surface Finish quality will be discussed.