Determination of the cutting forces from accelerations of a MEMS-based sensor-integrated milling tool

In today’s highly automated and extensively customized production environment, acquiring measurement data from production systems is increasingly essential to maintain and increase the productivity and quality of the manufactured components. In the research environment, expensive measuring systems are used to record measurement data, e.g., cutting forces, accelerations, and temperatures. In addition, a growing amount of data is being taken directly from the machine tool control system to make processes transparent. Furthermore, sensor-integrated tools are increasingly used to supplement or replace stationary measurement technology. A wide range of sensor integration options are being utilized for this purpose. Industrial systems are already integrating sensors into the tool holder, while researchers are trying to get progressively closer to the tool center point to obtain highly sensitive data. However, methods based on cost-effective technologies are needed for widespread use in industrial practice. Considering this, this article presents a method for determining the cutting forces from the acquired accelerations measured by a MEMS sensor near the tool center point. For this purpose, the acceleration data is first cleaned using two-stage Coiflet-Wavelet-Denoising and then converted into displacements in the frequency domain. Finally, the data is transformed back into the time domain. An outlook is given on how these forces can be utilized for process monitoring and control.