Machine-Tool Spindle Sensing Individual Cutting-Edge Load
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing machine-tool systems require significant constructional and economic effort due to separate tool adapters and evaluation devices for sensing cutting-edge wear, leading to increased costs, limited tool holder versatility, and susceptibility to interference, with complex wireless data transmission and extended lever ratios causing bearing loads and machining inaccuracies.
Innovation Solution
Integration of individual-cutting-edge sensors within the motor-driven machine-tool unit eliminates the need for separate adapters and evaluation devices, allowing direct sensing of cutting-edge loads with reduced lever ratios, improved rigidity, and enhanced accuracy, using contactless sensors for precise force measurement and data transmission via cables to minimize interference.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If separate tool adapters with measuring sensors are used to sense cutting-edge wear, then measurement precision is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent integrates the measuring sensors directly into the machine-tool spindle structure, merging the previously separate tool adapter and evaluation device with the spindle. This integration maintains the ability to sense cutting-edge wear while eliminating the need for separate adapters and reducing overall system complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The spindle is designed to serve multiple functions: it acts as both the machining tool holder and the measurement system. The measuring sensors integrated into the spindle can monitor multiple cutting edges simultaneously, making the system universal and adaptable to different tooling configurations without requiring separate specialized adapters.
2Measurement precision
If separate evaluation devices and wireless transmission are used, then measurement capability is improved, but reliability decreases due to interference
Solution Approach 1:
The evaluation device is integrated directly into the spindle structure, merging the measurement and evaluation functions into a single reliable unit. This eliminates wireless transmission entirely, as the sensors and evaluation electronics are co-located within the spindle, ensuring reliable operation in the challenging industrial environment without susceptibility to electromagnetic interference.
3Measurement precision
If tool adapters with extended lever ratios are used, then measurement sensitivity is improved, but bearing loads increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the measurement function from the tool adapter and relocates it directly to the spindle structure. By positioning the measuring sensors at the spindle's bearing locations, the system eliminates the need for extended lever ratios in tool adapters. The bearings themselves serve as the measurement reference points, directly sensing the forces without amplification, thereby reducing bearing loads while maintaining measurement capability.
4Measurement precision
If multiple sensors per cutting edge are integrated into each tool holder, then measurement precision is improved, but manufacturing cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The spindle is designed as a universal measurement platform that can monitor multiple cutting edges simultaneously using a shared set of sensors integrated into the spindle structure. This eliminates the need to integrate separate sensor systems into each individual tool holder, significantly reducing manufacturing costs while maintaining the capability to sense loads on each cutting edge through the shared spindle-based measurement system.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This solution reduces constructional and economic effort, enhances machining accuracy, safety, and early detection of cutting-edge wear, enabling more efficient tool monitoring and reduced rejects with improved bearing loading and vibration resistance.
Implementation Method 1
A sensor arranged on the stator unit is used to determine a change in distance between the stator unit and the rotor unit which is caused by the cutting-edge load on the individual cutting edge
Data Source
AI summary
A method for sensing a cutting-edge load in a motor-driven machine-tool unit having a stator unit and a rotor unit that is rotatable at least about an axis of rotation. The rotor unit includes a tool receiving unit that is adjustable along the axis of rotation and to which a clamping force can be applied, for fixing and clamping a releasably fixable tool shank of a tool. A tool head of the tool includes at least one individual cutting edge. A tool sensor is provided for sensing the load on the tool, the tool sensor being realized as an individual-cutting-edge sensor for sensing a cutting-edge load on the individual cutting edge.