ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the development of an in-process inspection system for turning centers. Many such systems are under investigation, the technology having evolved along two paths, namely static and dynamic in-process inspection. The chapter focuses on the system’s application to automated tool wear compensation. It outlines the development of the tool wear compensation adaptive control, especially its initial laboratory evaluation. In active air gauges the back pressure in nozzle line is fed back to a piston connected to the nozzle so that when the probe gap increases this pressure drops, lowering the retracting pressure on the piston. The automatic tool wear compensation system was developed for the machine on which it was to be demonstrated, namely the Gray vertical turret lathe in the Machining Development Laboratory of General Electrica Aircraft Engine Business Group in Cincinnati. Compensations for wear on cutting pass recording are shown as abrupt closures of the air gap corresponding to the step changes in the x-axis position.
