A machine vision system for wear monitoring and breakage detection of single-point cutting tools

Automated tool wear monitoring and tool breakage detection is an area of tremendous importance in the progress towards fully automating machining centres. This paper presents a newly developed machine vision system to monitor war and detect breakage in single-point cutting tools. From the image of a given tool, the developed system extracts five features which are then used in classifying the tool as good, worn or broken. The results obtained from tests on a laboratory CNC lathe correlate well with those obtained using conventional techniques.