Real-time tool wear monitoring in milling using a cutting condition independent method

This paper describes a new method to monitor end milling tool wear in real-time by tracking force model coefficients during the cutting process. The behavior of these coefficients are shown to be independent from the cutting conditions and correlated with the wear state of the cutting tool. The tangential and radial force model coefficients are normalized and combined into a single parameter for wear monitoring. A number of experiments with different workpiece materials are run to investigate the feasibility of tool wear monitoring using this method. We show that this method can be used in real-time to track tool wear and detect the transition point from the gradual wear region to the failure region in which the rate of wear accelerates. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.