The need to increase machine tool productivity results in the use of ever-increasing cutting speeds or axis-movement speeds; faster speeds translates to the increase of serious collisions risk between tools and workpieces, mainly attributable to errors (digital control programming errors; erroneous workpiece positioning; manual movements).
In addition to greater force being exerted on spindles and micro-shocks that are difficult to avoid. In the former scenario, an uncontrolled shock can seriously damage the workpiece or the machine tool, resulting in repair costs. In the latter scenario, micro-shocks can cause brinelling (indentation of a hard surface) of spindle bearings, which can significantly increase wear and tear.
It is therefore essential to monitor collisions to avoid potentially catastrophic consequences and to keep possible effects of micro-collisions on spindle wear and tear within reasonable limits.
To detect this kind of phenomena, it is necessary to equip the machine tools with systems that have these features:
- Ability to output triaxial data
- Ability to discern collisions from ordinary movements and vibrations
- Save the output data in a local drive
- Download gathered data to be analyzed
- Trigger a very fast relay alert (≤ 1 ms) to stop the machine
