ADAPTIVE SYSTEM FOR PRECISION CONTROL AND OPTIMIZATION OF MACHINING CELLS

COLDING INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION WITH SUBCONTRACT TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN PROPOSES TO DEVELOP A COMPLETE ADAPTIVE OPTIMIZATION SYSTEM FOR BOTH SINGLE MACHINE TOOL AND MACHINING CELLS. THE SYSTEM WILL INCREASE THE PART DIMENSIONAL ACCURACY BY AT LEAST10:1 AND IMPROVE SURFACE FINISH BY 2:1, YET INCREASING PRODUCTIVITY BY 50%, AND BE ABLE TO OPTIMIZE AND BALANCE THE CELL PRODUCT FLOW TO ACHIEVE A 30% REDUCTION OF TOTAL PART PROCESSING TIME. TOOL BREAKAGE WILL BE DETECTED WITHIN 1 MSECOND OR LESS. THE SYSTEM, BEING A MERGER OF PROTOTYPES OF COLDING INTL. AND THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, IS CHARACTERIZED BY A DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM AS AN INTEGRATION TOOL FOR SENSOR-BASED ENHANCED PRECISION SYSTEM FOR INCREASED DIMENSIONAL ACCURACY AND SURFACE QUALITY OF ANY METAL CUTTING PROCESS. THE SYSTEM WILL INCLUDE TOOL BREAKAGE DETECTION AND WILL OPTIMIZE PRODUCTIVITY BY APPLYING REACTIVE TOOL CHANGING STRATEGIES TO BOTH ROUGHING AND FINISHING OPERATIONS. A CUTTING FORCE DYNAMOMETER, MEASURING AT LEAST THE MAIN CUTTING FORCE AND THE FEED FORCE, WILL BE USED FOR ON-LINE TOOL WEAR COMPENSATION, AS WELL AS FOR TOOL BREAKAGE DETECTION. THE CUTTING FORCE ANDA DISPLACEMENT TRANSDUCER WILL COMPENSATE FOR VIBRATIONS. AN ON-LINEMACHINE TOOL TEMPERATURE SENSOR WILL BE USED FOR THERMAL COMPENSATION, AND A LASER INTERFEROMETER FOR OFF-LINE MACHINE TOOL GEOMETRIC COMPENSATION. AN EXISTING LARGE DATABASE FOR CALCULATION OF TOOL-LIFE AND THE CUTTING FORCES WILL GENERATE INITIAL VALUES AS WELL AS VALUES AFTER COMPENSATION. THE SYSTEM OF SOFTWARE ALGORITHMS WILL IN PHASE 2 BE IMPLEMENTED ON THREE EXISTING MACHINE TOOLS (INCLUDING SENSORS) IN THELABORATORIES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN. ANTICIPATED BENEFITS/POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS - AS THE PROPOSED SYSTEM IS TO BE APPLICABLE TO FINISHING, AT 10 TIMES GREATER