Chasing the Cut: A Measurement Approach for Machine Tool Condition Monitoring

Often, the condition of a machine tool is detected indirectly in the reduced quality of manufactured parts upon visual inspection. Reliable and efficient machine tool condition monitoring is indispensable for manufacturing. Furthermore, issues affecting machine tools are closely related to pathologies associated with many other industrial electromechanical systems. An instrumentation and measurement solution for tool condition monitoring is presented in this article. A signal processing algorithm and instrumentation hardware are proposed to avoid intrusive sensor installations or modifications of the machine under test. The cyclostationary properties of machine vibration signals drive fault-detection approaches in the proposed sensing hardware and signal processing chain. A sample of end mills from an industrial facility is used to validate the tool condition monitoring system.