Broaching is a cutting operation which uses a toothed tool called a broach to remove material. Broaching can produce parts with both a good surface finish and dimensional accuracy and is usually favorable to other processes when used for high-quantity production runs.

Unfortunately the process can degrade or change quickly due to tool dulling, jamming, material build up, etc., which can lead to excessive loading on the tool, and ultimately tool failure and downtime.

This application involves the monitoring of peak insertion and withdrawal forces on the tool during every tool cycle to reduce tool failure and eliminate machine crashes.

How it works

The Piezo-strain transducer is mounted on the moving head and provides an output relative to the micro deflection of the load on the tool head during the broaching operation. The sensor connects to the Process Signal Conditioner Module that provides a 0-10VDC output to the machine control analog input card. This analog input is scaled to engineering units and displayed on the operator interface. A user configurable set-point is also displayed, which determines the relative peak force during the operation. If the set-point exceeds a specified limit for insertion or withdrawal of the tool, then the machine operation is inhibited. This is very suitable for OEM and retrofit markets.