Evaluation of a spindle-based force sensor for monitoring and fault diagnosis of machining operations

This paper presents an evaluation of a spindle-based force sensor, the force ring, which is a strong candidate for in-process monitoring and fault diagnosis of machining operations. The evaluation criteria include the effect of integration of the force ring on the dynamics of the spindle, the drift behavior due to temperature change inside the spindle, the cross-talk between the channels, and the existence and compensation of the spindle-internal forces. The application of the force ring to process model-based monitoring and fault diagnosis has been demonstrated by the determination of force calibration coefficients using the force ring and their comparison with results obtained with a platform dynamometer. It has been concluded that the force ring provides dynamometer quality force measurements.