Design and analysis of a piezoelectric film embedded smart cutting tool

The condition of a cutting tool is an important factor in manufacturing processes. Tool wear has a strong influence on the cutting forces, resulting in a poor surface finish and impacting on the dimensional tolerance of the workpiece. Therefore, the use of a dynamometer during machining to measure cutting forces is a well-known approach but it has several limitations such as high cost, poor performance in harsh industrial machining environments and possible interference with cutting dynamics. This paper presents a novel smart cutting tool using a separate single-layer piezoelectric film as the sensing unit to detect the orthogonal cutting force. Simulations were performed to validate the feasibility of the proposed design and the model was also able to detect improved force measurement sensitivity. Furthermore, cutting trials were carried out to validate tool performance experimentally.