Abstract
The machining accuracy of machine tools has improved and the instrumentation technology on the machine has also advanced by leaps and bounds. Contact measurements using a touch sensor and contactless measurements using a laser, etc. are used on the present manufacturing process. However, the detection of the edge of rotating tool using contact measurements is very difficult. Also, there arises a problem of the misdetection caused by the chip or stain that adheres to the cutting tool in contactless measurements. In this research, the detection of elastic stress waves caused when a rotating cutting tool contacted directly to a work material by using an acoustic emission (AE) technique was performed in order to solve these problems. The measurement of an exact tool position on machining becomes possible by using the AE technique. As a result of the experiments, the contact between the cutting tool and the workpiece was able to be detected by an accuracy of 0.1μm.
