Accumonit
Challenge
Precision machining is a critical process in the manufacturing industry, with tasks like CNC machining or additive manufacturing. The required accuracies demand increased efforts and resources, presenting a challenge for companies that often face the dilemma of either achieving high accuracy with low productivity or pursuing high productivity with a high risk of scrap, especially in small-batch production.
In this project (AccuMonit), we research innovative solutions for monitoring the workpiece-accuracy of CNC machines and other manufacturing process.
Project goals
With our research we aim to advance state-of-the-art methods and share knowledge on improving the monitoring of workpiece accuracy during machining, as well as subsequent precise and automatic optical inspection. This solution is composed of four innovations:
- Novel measurement system based on inertial measurement unit (IMU): Due to the limited stiffness of a CNC machine tool, the positions given by the encoders are insufficiently accurate for high precision manufacturing. Inertial measurements near the spindle nose will improve the accuracy of the tool’s pose estimation in real time.
- An instrumented toolholder is developed to estimate the cutting forces at the tooltip: Cutting force holds key to unlock process performance related aspects such as tool wear tool bending. When combined with additional virtual sensors we can also accurately estimate workpiece geometry.
- Fast 3D scanning technology for work piece inspection close to machine: Improving the speed and accuracy of quality control with automated, non-contact measurements of the whole workpiece
- Data-driven (in)accuracy decomposition tool: Machine learning algorithms can be used to help analyzing machining accuracy problems: tracking down root causes of inaccuracy and decoupling error contributions. The algorithms capture complex dynamics by learning the relationship from the data, that are traditionally challenging to model.
Our target audience includes a variety of companies, both small and large, such as machine tool users and builders, as well as measuring technology providers, who are interested in adopting innovative monitoring systems into their workflows.
Project partners
This project is a collaboration between the following European research organizations: