Proceedings of the 1st IFAC Conference on Embedded Systems,

Computational Intelligence and Telematics in Control - CESCIT

2012
3-5 April 2012. Würzburg, Germany

A case study of a flexible software tool in the drilling process

E. Portillo*, I. Cabanes**, J.A. Sánchez***, D. Orive****, N. Ortega*****, M. Marcos******

*Department of Automatic Control and System Engineering, University of the Basque Country, Alameda Urquijo s/n, 48013,
Bilbao, Spain (Tel: +34 94 6013952; e-mail: eva.portillo@ehu.es).

**Department of Automatic Control and System Engineering, University of the Basque Country, Alameda Urquijo s/n, 48013,
Bilbao, Spain (Tel: +34 94 6013951; e-mail: itziar.cabanes@ehu.es).

*** Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of the Basque Country, Alameda Urquijo s/n, 48013Bilbao, Spain
(Tel: +34 94 6014089; e-mail: joseantonio.sanchez@ehu.es).

**** Department of Automatic Control and System Engineering, University of the Basque Country, Alameda Urquijo s/n,
48013Bilbao, Spain (Tel: +34 94 6014212; e-mail: dario.orive@ehu.es).

***** Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of the Basque Country, Alameda Urquijo s/n, 48013Bilbao, Spain
(Tel: +34 94 6013929; e-mail: naiara.ortega@ehu.es).

****** Department of Automatic Control and System Engineering, University of the Basque Country, Alameda Urquijo s/n,
48013Bilbao, Spain (Tel: +34 94 6014049; e-mail: marga.marcos@ehu.es).

Abstract: The drilling process is one of the most extended machining processes inthe manufacturing
industry. However, the performance of this process can be importantly decreased due to the drill wear
and even breakage. Concerning this, this paper presents a flexible software tool that provides the user of
the drilling machine with information about the current regime of the drilling process. In particular, the
application provides information related to the occurrence of both tool wear and material
heterogeneities.
Keywords: Flexible software tool, Industrial application, drilling, tool wear LabviewTM.

particles with different mechanical properties compared to

1. INTRODUCTION
The production of holes using the drilling process plays a
fundamental role in the manufacturing industry. In fact, 70%
of all the material removed by conventional machining comes
from drilling operations (Abele et al., 2007).
Actually, the proper control and monitoring of tool
performance become critical to achieve the accuracy and
productivity optimization.
As in other material removal processes, in the drilling process
it is also difficult to directly measure and monitor the
phenomena related to the contact between the tool and the
workpiece. Consequently, important efforts have been done
in this field by using process signals that provide indirect
information about the current state of the drilling process.
The details of representative works in this field can be found
in Gajate et al. (2009), Jantunen (2002), Li (1999), Govekar
et al. (1994), Schehl (1991), and Hayashi et al. (1988).
In particular, avoiding the tool wear and/or breakage is one of
the main concerns to be addressedin the case of the drilling
process.The causes of these phenomena are related to the
progressive wear provoked by high machining temperatures,
high pressure on the rake surface, as well as part material
heterogeneities. Concerning the latter, the appearance of
those for which the cutting parameters have been defined can
lead to excessive wear and even the risk of sudden breakage.
Thus, from the production process perspective, several
undesirable consequences can arise: downtimes, increased
production costs, loss of dimensional tolerances, and even
irreversible workpiece defects.
In order to detect the degradation of the drill two main
process signals can be monitored: the cutting forces and the
power signal. The tangential component of the cutting force
has been usually employed since that component is the one
with the highest module (Haber-Haber et al., 2007).
However, measuring forces requires the use of highly
specialized and expensive devices which are not robust under
industrial conditions (such as dynamometric tables).
Moreover, they are not intended to be integrated into a
competitive commercial machine. Since the tangential force
can be converted into power by multiplying by the cutting
speed, measuring power becomes an efficient and robust
alternative for process monitoring.
Given the need for improving the process productivity,
flexible software tools would facilitate the work of the
machine operator. Actually, it is crucial for the machine
operator to have information about the current behaviour of
the process (such as the tool wear) so as he/she can modify

978-3-902661-97-5/12/$20.00 © 2012 IFAC 333 10.3182/20120403-3-DE-3010.00025

the cutting conditions before damaging the machined assistant for the detection of both tool wear and material
component. It should be taken into account that when a heterogeneities.
workpiece is damaged the operator has to discard it and,
2. FLEXIBLE SOFTWARE TOOL IN DRILLING
consequently, the whole work is to be repeated, which means
PROCESS
increasing times, costs, and energy and material wasting.
The Drilling Process Computer Assistant DriCA integrates
In this context, flexible software tools for process monitoring
an acquisition system based on a commercial acquisition
and diagnosis are of primary importance for an easier and
board, and consists of 3 modules: the Instantaneous Power
faster analysis of the behaviour of the process under different
Module, that provides information about the current value of
operating conditions. Thus, this paper presents the Drilling
the power signal, the Power Signal Statistics Module, that
Process Computer Assistant (DriCA), whichdetects the
allow to analyse the evolution of the power signal along
degradation of the drilling process due to factors such as tool
several drilling holes, and the Detection Module, that advices
wear and material heterogeneities. In particular, the most
on the occurrence of both tool wear and material changes.
important characteristics as well as the design and
implementation details of DriCA are described in this paper. Fig.1 shows the Graphical User Interface GUI of DriCA with
Finally, application examplesare presentedrelated to the the three modules defined. DriCA is a user-friendly and easy
drilling of stacks of dissimilar materials, including steel, cast scalable system that has been implemented by LabviewTM.
iron and aluminium. The results show the usefulness of the

Fig.1. DriCA: User Interface

The Instantaneous Power Module acquires de cutting power instantaneous samples of the power signal captured by the
signal from the NI-6115 acquisition card (described in previously described acquisition system.
section 3) and depicts the acquired samples on a graph,
Finally, the Detection Module advices on the occurrence of
showing the current evolution of the power signal. In
both tool wear and material heterogeneities. For that purpose,
particular, the graph shows the earliest 20 seconds of the
two sets of indicators are provided: (a) indicators that alert
power signalso as to provide a quick view of the current state
from two types of tool wear: progressive wear and possible
of the process.
tool fracture; and (b) indicators that inform about the current
The Power Signal Statistics Module consists of a graph that machined material.
shows the evolution of the average power informing about
As expected, the Detection Module concludes the diagnosis
the behaviour of the process along several drilling holes.
of the state of the drilling process by the analysis of both the
Additionally, one indicator shows the mean of the power
instantaneous and the statistical values provided by the
signal. Obviously, the evolution is computed from the
InstantaneousPower and the Power Signal Statistics

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3-5 April 2012. Würzburg, Germany
modules. In particular, the instantaneous power signal is
employed for detecting material heterogeneities and the
power signal statistics for estimating the tool wear. The
subsequent subsections explain the main concerns related to
both diagnoses.
3.ACQUISITION SYSTEM
The main goal of the data acquisition system is to
continuously acquire generic signals, with the required
sample and storage rate and provided several analogue input
channels with independent resolution and input range
configuration. In particular, this real time data acquisition
system aims at acquiring experimental databases (both stable
and degraded tests) that can be processed in order to define
generic indicators of instability tendencies related to tool
wear and unwanted heterogeneities.
In this case, the choice of the Data Acquisition System has
been conditioned mainly by tworequirements: a sampling
frequency of 200Hz; one analogue input channel with
independent resolution and input range configuration to
Fig.2. Acquisition system
4.EXPERIMENTAL EXAMPLES
In order to illsutrate the usefulness of the presented tool, this
section presents application examples of the detection of both
material hetereogeneities and tool wear.
4.1Detection of material heterogeneities
It is well known that the value of the cutting power (kW) in
stable regime (in other words, when the drill is completely
CESCIT 2012
3-5 April 2012. Würzburg, Germany
acquire the power signal referred to the power consumed in
the spindle.
In order to store the power signal, an acquisition system
based on the acquisition card NI-6115 has been performed.
The selected system allows continuous capturing, without
loss of samples, and subsequent processing of signals with
LabViewTM. Therefore, it may be used under different
conditions (different workpiece materials, machining
conditions, etc). Fig.2 shows a diagram of the real time data
acquisition system used in the drilling process.
The power consumed by the drill spindle is measured by the
universal power sensor UPC-FR from Load Controls, which
is installed in the upper-back panel of the machine, and it
measures the input power to the spindle motor rotation. The
power signal is transferred to the BNC-2110 adapter (the
Noise-Rejecting BNC I/O Connector Block, National
Instruments). This adapter is connected to a NI-6115 data
acquisition board.
inserted into the workpiece) depends on the specific cutting
force Kcof the material (N/mm2), the feed rate f (mm/rev), the
drill diameter D (mm), and the number of revolutions per
minute n (rpm), and a constant value kte used to translate the
different magnitudes into the International System of Units.
!! !! ! !
!! ! !"#
! (1)
335
Thus, material heterogeneities can be detected by applying Table 1.Detection of material heterogeneities:
this mathematical expression. Given the current value of the combination of materials
feed rate (f), the drill diameter (D), the number of revolutions
per minute (n), and the current value of the power (P) Material 1 Material 2
measured by the acquisition system, the specific cutting force (UpperLayer) (LowerLayer)
of the machined material (Kc) can be computed and, as a Aluminium 7075
Steel F114
result, the current material can be inferred. Castiron GS45
Castiron Steel F114
Actually, the on-line detection of transitions between GS45 Aluminium 7075
materials is useful when the change of material is due to Steel F114
Aluminium
heterogeneities in the machined workpiece. This aspect is 7075 Castiron GS45
important especially when the transition is from a soft to a
hard material since normally the harder material contacts Fig.4 illustrates the experiments that reproduce the behaviour
with the main cutting edges producing an increase in the of the process when the drill finds an unwanted heterogeneity
cutting power provided the machining parameters of the in the material.
softer material. In this context DriCA provides the user with
important information that can be employed to adapt the
machining parameters (in particular, the feed rate) when
detecting such transitions.
Industrial drilling tests of these similar materials have been
carried out in order to validate the performance of the DriCA
assistant. The sandwich workpieces proposed for the tests
consist of two layers of different materials (each layer is 30
mm height), as it is shown in Fig.3. In these tests the depth
hole machined is 45 mm.
Fig.4. Detection of material heterogeneities: real
The workpiece materials considered during these implementation.
experimentsare summarized in Table 1. In this case, 40 holes
are machined for each combination of material (steel F114, The behaviour of the power signal during the transitions from
aluminium 7075 and cast iron GS45).The drilling parameters aluminium to steel, from aluminium to cast iron, and from
used are those recommended by the manufacturer for the cast iron to steel, respectively, has been analysed. The results
material 1 in the sandwich workpieces. of the analysis of the experiments reveal that the increases of
the power process signal due to these transitions are
The drills used in all the tests are high-performance sub- approximately 115%, 175% and 20%, respectively. As
micron ED-TiAlN coated hard metal, and they allow a expected, the values of these increments depend on both the
maximum depth of the hole equal to five times the diameter specific cutting force of the material, and the machine
(5xD). Thus, in these tests the diameter of the tool is 10 mm, parameters. Fig. 1 illustrates the evolution from aluminium to
allowing maximum depth of the holes of 50 mm. steel.
Specifically, the depth of the holes are 30 mm in material 1
and 15 mm in material 2, yielding a total depth of 45 mm.

steel

aluminium

Fig.5.Transition from aluminium to steel.

Fig.3.Detection of material heterogeneities: configuration of
the experiments.
From the drilling process behavior point of view, the time
required to detect a transition from one material to another
one depends on the properties of the materials involved.
Considering the materials employed during the experiments,
the longest time required to detect the new material is given
by the transition from aluminium to cast iron, which is
around 0.5 seconds.

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3-5 April 2012. Würzburg, Germany
6.2Detection of tool wear

Drilling a high number of holes with the same tool provokes

the tool wear and, as a consequence, the degradation of the
process. The design of the tests to detect such situation is
shown in Table 2. This configuration of tests is designed
based on three aspects:
Understanding the behaviour of the drilling process under
various commonly used materials. In particular, it uses steel
F114 and cast iron GS45 which are widely used in
applications such as automotive stamping dies.
Different tool diameters. Specifically, the drill diameters
considered are 10mm and 15mm.
'
Understanding the behaviour of the process when tool wear
occurs. Fig.6.Detection of tool wear: real implementation.
Table 2.Detection ofthe tool wear:workpiece materials Fig. 7 and Fig. 8 show the evolution of the mean of the power
and drill diameters stationary value when cutting steel F114 and cast iron GS45
workpieces by means of a 10 mm diameter drill, respectively.
Workpiece Drill
Material diameter(mm)
10
Steel F114
15

10
Cast iron Tool wear
GS45 No tool wear
15

All the tests are performed on high speed milling Kondia

HS1000. They have been collected by the acquisition system Fig.7. Experiments performed on steel F114 by means of a 10
detailed in the previous section. The drills used in all the tests mm diameter drill
are high-performance sub-micron ED-TiAlN coated hard
metal, and they allow a maximum hole depth, equal to three
times the diameter (3xD). The tests are carried out with a
hole depth of 20 mm in order not to exceed the limit of the
most restrictive bit (in the case of the 10 mm diameter Tool wear

drilling tool, the maximum depth is 30 mm). In particular, in

these tests depth holes are 20 mm. The drilling parameters No tool wear

used are those recommended by the manufacturer depending

on the drill diameter and workpiece material. Two series of
holes per workpiece material and drill diameter have been
machined.
During these experiments, holes are machined by the same
drill until the drill wears or breaks. In order to illustrate these
experiments, Fig.6illustrates these experimental tests when
steel F114 workpiece is drilled. In fact, every 5 holes the
diameter of the tool and its wear, as well as the aspects of the
machined holes have been evaluated by an optic
microscopic.This procedure is performed without removing
the drill.
Fig.8. Experimentsperformed on cast iron GS45 workpieces
by means of a 10 mm diameter drill.
Note that in the experiments performed on steel workpieces,
cutting fluid has been removed from the 78th hole so as to
provoke the drill wear.
The effect of the drill wear can be observed in the so-called
Tool wear zone marked in Fig.7 and Fig.8. Again, the
behaviour of the wear depending on the material can be
noticed. In particular, the effect of the drill wear when cutting
steel workpieces is an approximately 10% slow and gradual
increase of the power variable (progressive tool wear; see
Fig. 9 a), which corresponds to the experiment represented in
Fig.7, and shows the condition of the tool after drilling the
112 holes of the experiment. However, when drilling cast
iron the power variable increases abruptly and
instantaneously approximately 50%, and, as a consequence,
the tool can fracture (tool fracture; see Fig. 9 b), which

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corresponds to the experiment represented in Fig.8 and shows 7. ACKNOWLEDGMENT
the condition of the tool after drilling the 40 holes of the
It is gratefully acknowledged the financial support of the
experiment.
University of the Basque Country UPV-EHU (GIU 10/20).
Thus, the initial value of power when using a new (zero
wear) drilling tool is known and, as stated in (1).This means
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the wear of the tool and the workpiece.

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3-5 April 2012. Würzburg, Germany