Abstract
In order to regulate cutting torque in milling, monitoring system should be set to a certain threshold. Radial immersion ratio is an important factor to determine the threshold and should be estimated in process for automatic regulation. In this paper, on-line estimation of the radial immersion ratio using spindle motor current in face milling is presented. When a tooth finishes sweeping, a sudden drop of cutting torque occurs. This torque drop is equal to the cutting torque acting on a single tooth at the swept angle of cut and can be acquired from cutting torque signals. Average cutting torque per revolution can also be calculated from cutting torque signals. The ratio of cutting torque acting on a single tooth at the swept angle of cut to the average cutting torque per revolution is a function of the swept angle of cut and the number of teeth. Using the magnitude of this ratio, the radial immersion ratio is estimated. Identical algorithm is adopted to estimate the immersion ratio based on the spindle motor current measurement. The experiments performed under different cutting conditions show that the radial immersion ratio can be estimated within 10% error range by the proposed method using spindle motor current. Varying immersion ratio is also estimated well using the presented algorithm.