Assessment of a three-axis on-rotor sensing performance for machining process monitoring: a case study

Online monitoring of cutting conditions is essential in intelligent manufacturing, and vibrations are one of the most effective signals in monitoring machining conditions. Generally, traditional wired accelerometers should be installed on a motionless or stable platform, such as a tool holder or lathe bed, to sense vibrations. Such installation methods would cause the signals to suffer more serious noise interferences and a low signal-to-noise ratio, resulting in less sensitivity to valuable information. Therefore, this study developed a novel three-axis wireless on-rotor sensing (ORS) system for monitoring the turning process. The Micro Electromechanical System (MEMS) accelerometer sensor node can be mounted on a rotating workpiece or spindle rotor and is more sensitive in detecting the vibrations of the entire rotor system without any modification of the lathe system and interference in the cutting procedure. The processor, data acquisition, and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) 5.0+ modules were developed and debugged to cooperate with a piezoelectric triaxial accelerometer, with a vibration amplitude not larger than ± 16 g. A series of turning tests were conducted and the results were compared with those from the commercial wired accelerometers, which proved that the ORS system can measure the vibration signal of the rotor system more effectively and sensitively than wired accelerometers, thus demonstrating the accurate monitoring of machining parameters.