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Monitoring and control of machining operations

University of British Columbia

The present Computer Numerical Controlled (CNC) machine tools can provide internal states of the machine (such as speed, feed, current, power, torque, and axis tracking errors) to external computers, which in turn can manipulate spindle speeds and feeds through Ethernet communication tools. This thesis presents on-line detection and avoidance of chatter vibrations, on-line prediction of cutting torque and its adaptive control during milling operations. Chatter is detected by monitoring the frequency spectrum of sound signals during machining operations. The forced vibrations that occur at spindle and tooth passing frequencies are removed through a comb filter. The chatter frequency and its magnitude are predicted. The spindle speed is automatically changed to enter the process into the nearest stability pocket if it lies within the first five stability lobes. If the process cannot be stabilized due to missing lobes at low speeds, the spindle speed is harmonically varied without violating the power limit of the spindle drive. The algorithm is implemented on a five axis Mori Seiki NMV5000 Machining Center with a FANUC 30i controller. The communication with an external PC is handled through Ethernet and FOCAS command library of Fanuc. The cutting torque is also predicted by monitoring the current of a three phase induction motor in real time. The cutting torque is estimated through Extended Kalman Filter from the steady state model of the motor after removing the friction component. The estimated torque is used to keep the cutting torque on the machine at desired and safe levels by manipulating the feed rate with adaptive pole placement controller. The thesis shows that it is possible to add process monitoring and control functions to the machine without having to add costly and impractical sensors on the machine, leading to safer and more productive machining operations.

Text

2013-09-05

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/45025

Mechanical Engineering

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/