Metal cutting tool wear indicator method and system

Claim 1

A method of determining metal cutting tool wear in a metal cutting process comprising (a) deriving an ultrasonic emission electrical signal, ue, from said cutting process, (b) processing said ue signal to derive a mean average signal, ue, therefrom, (c) deriving a horsepower electrical signal, hp, from said cutting process, (d) processing said hp signal to derive a mean average hp signal, hp, therefrom, (e) programming an electrical signal processing calculator to calculate a quadratic function of said hp to determine an estimated mean average of said ue signal, ue, for said cutting process, (f) processing said ue and ue signals in an adjustable ratio processor to determine a ue/ue value correlated to cutting tool wear.

Claim 2

A method of determining metal cutting tool wear in a metal cutting process comprising (a) deriving an ultrasonic emission electrical signal, ue, from said cutting process, (b) processing said ue signal to derive a mean average signal, ue, therefrom, (c) deriving a horsepower electrical signal, hp, from said cutting process, (d) processing said hp signal to derive a mean average hp signal, hp, therefrom, (e) programming an electrical signal processing calculator to calculate a quadratic function of said hp to determine an estimated mean average of said ue signal, ue, for said cutting process, (f) processing said ue and ue signals in an adjustable ratio processor to determine a ue/ue value correlated to cutting tool wear.

Claim 6

A method of determining metal cutting tool wear comprising (a) deriving an electrical hp signal from said cutting tool representative of the horsepower being applied to said tool during its metal cutting process, (b) deriving an electrical ue signal from said cutting tool corresponding to the ultrasonic emission from said tool--during its metal cutting process; (c) passing said ue signal through a processing path having electrical signal components including one of a matched pair of synchronous filters which provide a mean average ue signal, ue, for said process, (d) passing said hp signal through a separate processing path having electrical signal processing components therein including the other one of said matched pair of synchronous filters to provide a mean average hp signal, hp, (e) passing said hp signal into a quadratic function processor and ue estimator correlated to the quadratic function a(hp) 2 +b(hp)+c to determine an estimated mean average ue, ue, as an output signal, (f) passing said hp signal and said ue signal into a coefficient calculator to determine the quadratic coefficient b as an estimated b,b --b-- (g) continuously passing said estimated coefficient b signal to said quadratic function and ue estimator to continuously calculate said estimated mean average ue, ue, for the cutting process, (h) passing said ue signal and said ue signal to a further coefficient calculator to determine the quadratic coefficient c as an estimated c, c, from the expression c=ue-ue, said c being an input signal to said quadratic function processor and ue estimator, (i) passing said ue signal and said ue signal into an adjustable ratio processor to determine a ratio value from the ratio ue/ue which indicates tool wear.

Claim 7

A method of determining metal cutting tool wear comprising (a) deriving an electrical hp signal from said cutting tool representative of the horsepower being applied to said tool during its metal cutting process, (b) deriving an electrical ue signal from said cutting tool corresponding to the ultrasonic emission from said tool--during its metal cutting process; (c) passing said ue signal through a processing path having electrical signal components including one of a matched pair of synchronous filters which provide a mean average ue signal, ue, for said process, (d) passing said hp signal through a separate processing path having electrical signal processing components therein including the other one of said matched pair of synchronous filters to provide a mean average hp signal, hp, (e) passing said hp signal into a quadratic function processor and ue estimator correlated to the quadratic function a(hp) 2 +b(hp)+c to determine an estimated mean average ue, ue, as an output signal, (f) passing said hp signal and said ue signal into a coefficient calculator to determine the quadratic coefficient b as an estimated b,b --b-- (g) continuously passing said estimated coefficient b signal to said quadratic function and ue estimator to continuously calculate said estimated mean average ue, ue, for the cutting process, (h) passing said ue signal and said ue signal to a further coefficient calculator to determine the quadratic coefficient c as an estimated c, c, from the expression c=ue-ue, said c being an input signal to said quadratic function processor and ue estimator, (i) passing said ue signal and said ue signal into an adjustable ratio processor to determine a ratio value from the ratio ue/ue which indicates tool wear.