Novel Spatial Cutting Tool-wear Measurement System Development and its Evaluation

The tool-wear of cutting tools has a very strong impact on the product quality as well as efficiency of the machining processes. Despite the nowadays high automation level in machining industry, tool-wear diagnostic that is measured of the machine tool, still prevent complete automation of the entire machining process. Therefore, its in-line characterization is crucial. Thus, the paper presents developed innovative, robust and reliable direct measuring procedure for measuring spatial cutting tool-wear in-line, with the usage of laser profile sensor. The technique provides possibility for determination of 3D wear profiles, as advantage to currently used 2D subjective techniques (microscopes, etc.). The use of proposed measurement system removes the subjective manual inspection and minimizes the time used for wear measurement. In the manuscript the system is experimentally tested on a case study, with further in-depth performed analyses of spatial cutting tool-wear.