FPGA based failure monitoring system for machining processes

To be adapted in an easy and economical manner to several machining processes is a desired characteristic in any proposed tool condition monitoring system so as to detect or avoid failures in machine tools. Many modern rotating machines have a servodriver which may, without sensors, acquire a current signal which is directly related to the cutting forces and then be correlated to the cutting tool conditions. Most of the reported systems are designed to work only in one machining process; yet the novelty of this paper is the fact of presenting a hardware signal processing unit implemented in a single field-programmable gate array (FPGA) for acquisition, conditioning, and basic signal monitoring in several machining processes. The system has been proven in industrial processes as well as in laboratories with satisfactory results in both cases. This model is reconfigurable and scalable so that it may be adapted to diverse conditions as an economical stand-alone unit since it does not require either computers nor microprocessors.