Sensorless intelligent classifier of tool condition in a CNC milling machine using a SOM supervised neural network

Industry has monitoring systems to determine the tool condition and to ensure quality. This paper presents an intelligent classification system which determines the status of cutters in a CNC milling machine. The tool states are detected through the analysis of the cutting forces drawn from the spindle motors currents. A wavelet transformation was used in order to compress the data and to optimise the classifier structure. Then a supervised SOM neural network is responsible for carrying out the classification of the signal. Achieving a reliability of 95%, the system is capable of detecting breakage and a worn cutter.