Predicting Tool Failures and Reducing Costs

Machine situation monitoring is a apply whereby the machine’s well being over a selected interval may be assessed. By capturing information from the machine, effectivity, general gear effectiveness, and different variables can be utilized to find out future efficiency to optimize elements substitute, put on and tear, and downtime for service.

However what about device monitoring? Whereas machine situation monitoring leverages electronically captured information, the instruments themselves are exact, hardened instruments that carry out the slicing, boring, or milling of a bit. By extending the idea of machine situation monitoring to incorporate device monitoring, corporations can predict device failure and cut back price.

What’s a Software Monitoring System?

Software monitoring is tougher to carry out than machine situation monitoring. It makes an attempt to leverage the info from the CNC machine to grasp and predict the situation and lifecycle of the device. The extra exact the prediction of device failure, the decrease the general device price incurred.

By monitoring varied elements, device life monitoring software program can inform operators of device put on and anticipated device life. This provides larger visibility into the method and empowers operators to get as a lot life as attainable from every device. They will additionally handle their time higher to carry out adjustments with much less downtime. Predicting the device failure permits operators to switch the device at an optimum level, whereas avoiding injury to the machine and half being produced, reducing scrap and power prices.

How do Software Monitoring Methods Work?

For corporations implementing device monitoring methods, there are basically three ranges of method. Every provides a various diploma of certainty as to indicating when a device failure will happen, and because of this, every step provides various levels of effectiveness.

Degree 1 Software Monitoring

The primary sort of device monitoring is probably the most primary, and it’s broadly used throughout the machining {industry}. It’s merely a variation on an outdated reactive upkeep apply the place the device is allowed to run to failure. This technique makes use of the failure factors to create a mean used as a substitute information. Roughly 95% of the {industry} is doing this.

Whereas this technique is straightforward to implement (leading to its industry-wide use), it does have important drawbacks.

The setpoint for the typical can grow to be arbitrary or subjective, particularly when totally different supplies are used within the machine. The lowered averages then drive up device prices.

Moreover, there may be all kinds of different variables that aren’t accounted for that interrupt the work of the device, inflicting it to stray from the typical. This ends in one in every of two issues:

1. Giant quantities of scrap elements by permitting instruments to run to failure or
2. Wasted device life and unnecessarily excessive tooling prices

A picture of a “good” half (high) and a “unhealthy half” (second from high). Under these are two endmills: the primary is new, whereas the underside is damaged. For this producer, when the endmill breaks (like the underside one), the slot doesn’t get minimize and the half turns into scrap.

Degree 2 Software Monitoring

The second stage of device monitoring is extra superior. This technique analyzes the facility being utilized by the spindle and tracks the waveform, just like the sound waves on a recording, to foretell failure factors. By studying the amplitude of the facility over time, will increase and reduces within the load can point out the failure level.

This technique, too, has drawbacks. Whereas addressing the difficulty raised by subjective averages in Degree 1, Degree 2 nonetheless can solely seize device circumstances at or very close to the failure level. Which means that the system continues to be open to doubtlessly increased scrap charges. It additionally means added downtime and potential injury to the machine relying on the kind of failure.

Degree 3 Software Monitoring

Essentially the most superior answer accessible, this method to device monitoring makes use of algorithms that may detect an method to failure in time to switch the half inside an appropriate upkeep cease and with considerably lowered scrap.

Degree 3 device monitoring methods, equivalent to these pioneered by MachineMetrics, use high-frequency information and superior algorithms to diagnose, predict, and keep away from failures.

These methods additionally require no sensors to watch the device. By measuring high-frequency information from torque utilization, information may be parsed, cleaned, and analyzed. This information is pulled instantly from the machine management, thus optimizing device monitoring to cowl the final mile and changing into an integral a part of a extra superior machine situation monitoring system.

Key Advantages of Software Monitoring

There are various advantages to a device monitoring system, together with:

• Situation Monitoring: Operators are notified of damaged or worn instruments stopping injury to elements or machines.
• Correct Software Life: Instruments may be optimized for particular conditions equivalent to machine sort, surroundings, or materials.
• Prolonged Software Lifecycle: Also called device optimization, optimizing the substitute of instruments means the lifecycle is maximized, and the device is rarely changed too early or too late.
• Improved High quality: Damaged instruments are solely a part of the issue. Worn instruments can even generate scrap by producing items which might be barely out of spec. Software monitoring can determine these worn instruments to forestall them from additional use.
• Predictive Upkeep: Predictive upkeep is probably the most impactful technique accessible for enhancing high quality and lowering prices. It has the power to precisely predict device failure and alert groups to repair the issue, avoiding scrap altogether.

With device monitoring, you’ll be able to replicate the ear of a complicated machinist with years of expertise listening to instruments and machines for any indicators of impending failure.

BC Machining Turns to MachineMetrics for Predictive Software Monitoring

When BC Machining sought assist to handle persevering with device breakage and excessive scrap charges, they engaged MachineMetrics for an answer. BC Machining serves the medical, protection, transportation, and energy device industries the place precision is important.

BC Machining had been experiencing extreme device breakage of their Swiss CNC machines, creating scrap each on the level of breakage and near-end-of-tool-life when elements can fluctuate out of spec.

Utilizing the MachineMetrics answer of capturing high-frequency information and analyzing it by superior algorithms, BC was in a position to determine device breakages to forestall scrap elements.

The drop in misplaced elements, sorting, and uncertainty translated into close to 100% failure detection and a $72,000 annual financial savings per machine.

Learn the entire case examine with BC Machining.

MachineMetrics provides a device monitoring system that collects information instantly from the supply – the CNC machine itself. By means of customized algorithms designed to watch torque utilization, inputs may be entered into the system as time-series occasions or machine studying fashions to foretell device failure precisely.

MachineMetrics excessive frequency information adapter can detect the issues and analyze the info on the edge to automate options and alert employees to points earlier than the failure happens, stopping pricey scrap and downtime. With superior machine diagnostics, tooling is optimized and included into an aggressive and absolutely automated predictive upkeep system. To see how MachineMetrics may be deployed to your device monitoring wants, e book a demo with our crew as we speak.