Main Researcher: Dr. Enrique Alegre Gutiérrez
Financing entity: Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad
Cod. Reference: DPI2012-36166
Scope: National
Abstract: This project pursues to provide a prediction model of the life of cutting tools
operating in a single pass across thick plates. This will involve various tests that
will identify the process charts and working areas of the process. During the tests
images of the wear of the cutting inserts will be acquired while inserted into the
tool and the workpiece surface. Vibration and power measurements will be
acquired as well. By merging all these signals a monitoring model of this type of
machining process will be developed. Finally, by relating this model with the
process charts and working areas of the process, a model of the tool life will be
developed.
This proposal is a response to an industrial necessity. TECOY company
manufactures machine tools and one of its latest innovations has been the design
and manufacturing of a machine that solves a problem faced by the metal poles of
wind towers. Due to the process of cutting and welding preparation of the plate,
the poles, made by very thick plates bended and welded, eventually show
microcracks. TECOI has eliminated this problem with the TRC25 cutting machine
by using plasma or oxy-fuel cutting and milling the edge of the plate in order
to leave the weld profiled.
This solution, which has made TECOI gain a competitive edge in the global
market with major machine tool manufacturers, presents the problem of breakage
of the cutter at the end of the life of the cutting inserts that it has inserted. Having
a monitoring system to predict the remaining life before each pass would be an
innovation in the process, a very helpful one for this machine and all those
performing similarly severe machining conditions.
The research team members that sign this proposal have experience in the fields
of computer vision, pattern recognition, machine learning, improving productivity
of machining processes and cutting tool wear. Their previous experience has
been gained during the last 8 years working on similar problems, having
supervised two doctoral theses on tool life and surface roughness measurement
by means of computer vision, with 12 publications in JCR journals directly related
to the proposal. They also have experience in the transfer of results, having
registered 11 patents, several of them in industrial use under a license contract,
and having made 4 IP records.
Achieving the proposed goals will be beneficial to the machining of very thick
plates, obtaining cost cuts in the manufacturing process of the piece, by
streamlining and improving current processes and developing a monitoring
system based on a model of the life of the tool to prevent economic losses due to
breakage and stop the process.
Start date: 01/01/2013
End date: 31/12/2015
