System for automatic management of tool life
AssigneeOkuma Machinery Works Ltd.
InventorsToshiaki Watanabe, Hideo Yuhara
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system for the automatic management (detection and control) of tool life in a numerically controlled machine tool having means for automatically measuring the dimension of workpieces and correcting the tool offset of a cutting tool depending on wear on the cutting tool. In the system, the mechanical deformation error component (radial deviation component of a spindle of the machine tool) due to heat is removed from the amount of tool offset value (tool feed position compensation) so as to accumulate solely the net tool wear component, and the cutting tool is exchanged when the accumulated value attains a predetermined setting.
Claims4
An automatic management system for tool life in a numerical machine tool including a tool post, a turret head journaled in said tool post for carrying a plurality of equally circumferentially spaced cutting tools of the same shape having their cutting edges disposed on the same circumference, a chuck releasably grasping a workpiece, a measuring unit responsive to a measurement instructing signal for automatically measuring the radial dimension of the workpiece grasped by said chuck, and means for turning said turret head, said system comprising:
- subtracting means for subtracting a signal representing the reference radial dimension of said workpiece from a signal representing the radial dimensions of said workpiece measured by said measuring unit thereby providing an output representing the amount of tool offset;
- tool life managing means for removing a radial deviation component due to heat from the amount of tool offset provided by the output of said subtracting means thereby accumulating solely a tool wear component, said tool life managing means actuating the turret head turning means to exchange a fresh one for a used one of said cutting tools when the accumulated value attains a preset value;
- and
- measurement instructing means for applying the measurement instructing signal to said measuring unit at the time determined by the output of said subtracting means.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.