Autoregrind

E-Mail:  Theuer@ifw.uni-hannover.de
Year:  2018
Date:  02-03-18
Funding:  AiF
Duration:  05/16 - 04/18

Cemented carbide milling tools are used in a wide field of applications, e.g. the aerospace and automotive industry. The international market volume of about 12 billion Euros of those tools leads to an increasing demand for a resource efficient regeneration of those tools. Therefore, cemented carbide milling tools are often reground. This process is separated into two different steps: The wear identification and the regrinding operation. Currently, the wear identification is performed by an optical estimation of a worker and is not supported by any kind of technical measurement equipment. Therefore, the accuracy of the estimation depends on the workers experience and daily performance. This leads to a varying resource efficiency of the regrinding operation and to different qualities and lifetimes of the reground tools. Consequenetly, a new measurement method using different measurement equipment is evaluated during the project called „Autoregrind“. This method allows to measure the present signs of tool wear on worn tools in a very timely and precise manner. Afterwards, the grinding operation is investigated and optimized in regards of grinding wheel specification, process parameters and grinding strategies. This optimized strategy is consequently used in order to increase the lifetime of the reground milling tools, which further increases its life cycles sustainability.