A New Method for Monitoring Grinding Processes Using Accelerometers

The surface grinding of the critical parts is the most important operation, which largely determines the product surface properties and its quality. In the context of automated production, efficient monitoring of this operation is a critically important task. In this work, we propose a new approach to monitoring of grinding: to simulate the processes of generating vibro-acoustic signals during grinding, to divide the working grains of the grinding wheel into sharp grains and low cutting ability ones. This division allows qualitatively predicting changes in the nature of vibro-acoustic signals accompanying grinding in different operational conditions, such as dry grinding and grinding with coolants, and the wear of the grinding wheel. The conclusions obtained based on the phenomenological modeling are confirmed by experimental studies showing that the vibration signal parameters adequately reflect the current state of the technological process and the wear of the grinding wheel. In this work, a new indicator for monitoring the grinding operation of products with high requirements to the quality of the machined surface was identified and evaluated. The proposed approach is shown to yield a more informative diagnostic indicator for finishing process compared to measurements of cutting forces, which are insufficiently efficient in the case of finishing operations with minimum allowance. The indicator was found to be efficient in the case of grinding of surfaces with roughness smaller than 0.4 µmm. The relevance of this indicator has been evaluated and proven in rigid grinding wheel-part-reference system, the use of which minimizes the probability of error. © 2022 SPIE.