In-situ grinding wheel topography, power monitoring, and feed/speed scheduling systems and methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2023241741-A1
Application number	US-202318149320-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jan 3, 2023
Priority date	Jan 28, 2022
Publication date	Aug 3, 2023
Grant date	—

Abstract

Feed rate scheduling methods include measuring a topography of a grinding wheel of a machine tool, calculating a topography parameter using the topography, and calculating a feed rate scheduling parameter for a toolpath of the grinding wheel based on the topography parameter. The topography may be measured using microscopy. The topography parameter may include a plurality of parameters including a density of crystals at a given depth (C(h)) of the grinding wheel and/or an area fraction of crystals protruding at a given depth (α(h)) of the grinding wheel. The feed rate scheduling parameter may include a grinding wheel feed rate, a grinding wheel spin rate, and/or a grinding wheel cutting depth, among other parameters.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A feed rate scheduling method, comprising:
measuring a topography of a grinding wheel of a machine tool; calculating a topography parameter of the grinding wheel; and calculating a feed rate scheduling parameter for a toolpath of the grinding wheel based on the topography parameter.

2 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the calculating the feed rate scheduling parameter comprises simulating a metal grinding process of the grinding wheel in a virtual machining simulation environment using the topography parameter.

3 . The method according to claim 2 , wherein the calculating the feed rate scheduling parameter comprises monitoring an electric power used by the machine tool.

4 . The method according to claim 3 , wherein the calculating the feed rate scheduling parameter comprises determining that the electric power is within a predetermined threshold.

5 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the topography parameter of the grinding wheel comprises a density of crystals at a given depth (h).

6 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the topography parameter of the grinding wheel comprises an area fraction of crystals protruding at a given depth (h).

7 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the feed rate scheduling parameter comprises an instantaneous grinding wheel feed rate.

8 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the topography parameter comprises a plurality of values as a function of distance with respect to a reference point on the grinding wheel, and the method further comprises limiting the topography parameter to a maximum distance (h max ).

9 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the measuring the topography is performed using a microscopy process.

10 . A grinding process simulator for feed rate scheduling for a grinding wheel, comprising:
a virtual machining simulation environment having a processor; and a tangible, non-transitory memory configured to communicate with the processor, the tangible, non-transitory memory having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by the processor, cause the virtual machining simulation environment to perform operations comprising:
receiving a topography parameter of the grinding wheel of a machine tool; and
calculating a feed rate scheduling parameter for a toolpath of the grinding wheel based on the topography parameter of the grinding wheel.

11 . The grinding process simulator according to claim 10 , wherein the calculating the feed rate scheduling parameter comprises simulating a metal grinding process of the grinding wheel in the virtual machining simulation environment using the topography parameter.

12 . The grinding process simulator according to claim 11 , wherein the calculating the feed rate scheduling parameter comprises monitoring an electric power used by the machine tool.

13 . The grinding process simulator according to claim 12 , wherein the calculating the feed rate scheduling parameter comprises determining that the electric power is within a predetermined threshold.

14 . The grinding process simulator according to claim 10 , wherein the topography parameter comprises a density of crystals at a given depth (h) of the grinding wheel (C(h)).

15 . The grinding process simulator according to claim 10 , wherein the topography parameter comprises an area fraction of crystals protruding at a given depth (h) of the grinding wheel (α(h)).

16 . The grinding process simulator according to claim 10 , wherein the feed rate scheduling parameter comprises a grinding wheel feed rate.

17 . The grinding process simulator according to claim 10 , wherein the topography parameter comprises a plurality of values as a function of depth (h) with respect to a reference point on the grinding wheel, and the operations further comprise limiting the topography parameter to a maximum distance (h max ).

18 . A method, comprising:
measuring a topography of a grinding wheel of a machine tool; calculating a plurality of topography parameters of the grinding wheel, wherein the plurality of topography parameters comprises at least one of a density of crystals at a given depth (C(h)) of the grinding wheel, or an area fraction of crystals protruding at a given depth (α(h)) of the grinding wheel; and calculating a feed rate scheduling parameter for a toolpath of the grinding wheel based on the plurality of topography parameters.

19 . The method of claim 18 , wherein the measuring the topography is performed in-situ using a microscopy process.

20 . The method of claim 18 , further comprising limiting a cutting depth of the grinding wheel to a maximum crystal height (h max ) of the grinding wheel.

Assignees

• Raytheon Tech Corp

Inventors

• Kountanya Raja Krishnan
• Fromerth Eric
• Leclerc Iii Donald J
• Koukouves Demetrios
• Guo Changsheng
• Sardo Alex James

Classifications

• B23Q17/0952 Primary

  during machining · CPC title

• G05B17/02

  electric · CPC title

• G05B19/4069 Primary

  Simulating machining process on screen (G05B19/4068 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G05B19/4163

  Adaptive control of feed or cutting velocity (without NC B23Q15/12) · CPC title

• B24B49/183

  Wear compensation without the presence of dressing tools · CPC title