Real-Time Consumable Tool Monitoring System
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current systems lack reliable, real-time data management for consumable tool consumption and performance throughout their life cycle, leading to inaccurate production cost calculations, stock management, and increased scrap rates due to lack of data integration and communication between production, storage, and suppliers.
Innovation Solution
A system and process that combines hardware and software to capture and monitor consumable tool performance data in real-time, creating a reliable database for managing tool life cycles from ordering to recycling, including modules for data capture, transfer, assessment, and instruction for withdrawal, rework, and stock management.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If historical consumption data is used to calculate tool life, then ordering decisions can be made, but the accuracy of production cost calculations and stock management deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements real-time feedback by capturing actual tool performance data from machines and automatically updating the database. This continuous feedback loop replaces historical estimation with actual measured data, improving tool life accuracy while maintaining efficient ordering decisions through automated alerts and notifications.
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables self-service by allowing machines to automatically report their own tool consumption data to the central database. This automated data collection eliminates manual tracking and ensures accurate, real-time information is available for ordering decisions without requiring human intervention.
2Reliability
If real-time data collection and integration systems are implemented, then production cost accuracy and stock management improve, but system complexity and implementation costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system achieves universality by creating a single integrated database that serves multiple functions: tracking tool inventory, monitoring machine performance, calculating production costs, and generating ordering alerts. This multi-functional approach consolidates what would otherwise require separate systems, reducing overall complexity while improving data reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a central database as an intermediary that standardizes data exchange between machines, storage systems, and ordering processes. This mediator layer simplifies integration by providing a common data format and interface, reducing the complexity of direct point-to-point connections between system components.
3Ease of manufacture
If manual tracking methods are used for tool inventory, then implementation is simple, but stock accuracy and production planning reliability deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements self-service by enabling machines to automatically track and report their own tool consumption and inventory status. This automated self-tracking eliminates manual intervention while maintaining system simplicity through intuitive interfaces and automated workflows that require minimal user training.
Data Source
AI summary
The invention refers to a system and a process for the measure and collection of consumables consumption and performance data to build a reliable, real-time database and to monitor the consumption and performance of a consumable tool through its life cycle. A system according to the invention comprises a) first storage means to store data concerning the consumables; b) means to capture the performance data; c) second storage means to store performance data during operation of the consumable when is mounted on a machine; d) means to transfer in real-time the performance data to the said second storage means; e) process means to assess the performance of the tool and on the basis of the said assessment to instruct or not the withdrawal of the tool; and output means to deliver the said instruction to a user of the system. A process according to the invention, comprises the following steps: a) capture performance data during operation of the tool when the tool is mounted on a machine; b) transfer in realtime the performance data to the management system; c) assess the performance of the tool; d) on the basis of said assessment instruct or not the withdrawal of the tool; and e) deliver the instruction to withdraw the tool to the user via output means.