Ball Screw Anomaly Visualization During Machine Tool Warm-Up
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing techniques fail to provide a clear and easy-to-understand visualization of the state of a ball screw, making it difficult to detect anomalies and prevent breakages, which leads to decreased productivity due to frequent replacements.
Innovation Solution
A machine tool system that includes a detector for sensing vibrations, sound, current, heat, and power values during warming-up, a feature amount extractor to process these values, and a display that plots points on a two-dimensional map with contour lines to represent the possibility of anomaly generation, allowing for visualization and timely detection of ball screw issues.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a value-based threshold method is used to determine ball screw life, then the determination of anomaly is simple, but the visualization of ball screw state is difficult to understand
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transforms the one-dimensional threshold comparison into a two-dimensional visualization by plotting total energy values against operational time or cycle numbers. This dimensional expansion allows operators to see not just whether a threshold is exceeded, but also the trend and rate of degradation, making the ball screw state much more intuitive to understand while preserving the simplicity of threshold-based anomaly detection.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a visualization interface as an intermediary between the raw sensor data and the operator's understanding. By displaying contour lines that represent different anomaly probability levels and plotting the current state point on this map, the system mediates the information flow, translating complex energy values into an intuitive visual representation that maintains operational simplicity.
2Measurement precision
If multiple sensed values are collected during warming-up, then the anomaly detection accuracy is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple sensed values (vibration, sound, current, heat, light, power) into a single integrated metric called 'total energy.' This merging approach maintains high anomaly detection accuracy by considering multiple parameters simultaneously, while avoiding the complexity of analyzing and coordinating multiple separate detection systems. The consolidation simplifies the device architecture while preserving measurement precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transforms multiple physical parameters (vibration amplitude, sound intensity, current magnitude, temperature, light emission, power consumption) into a unified energy metric through mathematical aggregation. This parameter transformation allows the system to maintain high detection accuracy by capturing the multi-faceted nature of ball screw degradation, while reducing device complexity by processing a single composite parameter instead of multiple separate ones.
Data Source
AI summary
A machine tool that visualizes the state of a ball screw in an easy-to-understand way includes a detector that detects at least one sensed value among vibrations, sound, and a current, heat, light, and power value applied to drive a ball screw during warming-up, a feature amount extractor that extracts a first feature amount and a second feature amount from the sensed value obtained by the detector, and a display that displays a point plotting the sensed value, and at least two boundaries laid out like contour lines to represent the possibility of generation of an anomaly in the ball screw, on a plane having a first axis defined by numerical values regarding the first feature amount and a second axis defined by numerical values regarding the second feature amount.