An integrated and intelligent milling temperature sensing tool holder with electromagnetic energy harvesting system

Cutting temperature is of vital importance in modern intelligent manufacturing, directly affecting many aspects, including tool wear rate, surface topography, machining quality and efficiency. The measurement of milling temperature is particularly hard due to high rotation speed of the tool-handle-spindle system. In this paper, an integrated self-powered wireless tool holder system with an end milling tool which has built-in thermal sensor is designed to implement continuous online temperature sensing. To mount thermocouple sensor, a groove is processed on major flank face of a customized milling tool and the mechanical structure of handle system is designed based on BT40-ER32 standard, integrated with back-end data processing circuits. To achieve stable long-time power supply for rotating machining system, an energy harvester of electromagnetic induction is developed and a hierarchical energy regulation method and Dynamic Power Path Management (DPPM) scheme is proposed to get further energy modulation. Cutting experiments of different parameters are implemented, proving the feasibility and stability of wireless self-powered milling temperature sensing handle system.