Tool Condition Monitoring in High-Speed Machining: Techniques and Trends

The competitive world of manufacturing has forced manufacturers to continuously improve productivity and efficiency. However, the biggest obstacles in achieving such high levels of efficiency are machine downtime, poor surface quality of final products and catastrophic tool failure. Additionally, the growing trend of automation of machining systems has pushed researchers to investigate ways to use unmanned monitoring systems to evaluate the machining processes before failure happens. Therefore, in the past few decades, a lot of research has been conducted into Tool Condition Monitoring Systems (TCMS) to achieve the targets of cost reduction and manufacturing efficiency. This paper aims to provide an overview of the major work done in TCMS and the problems faced by researchers in implementing their ideas in the real world of Industrial Computer Numerical Control (CNC) manufacturing processes. The core focus of this paper would be on single point cutting tool monitoring.