Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2012) 61:465–479
DOI 10.1007/s00170-011-3722-7
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
A new approach to investigate tool condition using dummy
tool holder and sensor setup
Md. Sayem Hossain Bhuiyan &
Imtiaz Ahmed Choudhury & Nukman Yusoff
Received: 14 October 2010 / Accepted: 24 October 2011 / Published online: 6 December 2011
# Springer-Verlag London Limited 2011
Abstract The industrial demand for automated machining
systems to enhance process productivity and quality in
machining aerospace components requires investigation of
tool condition monitoring. The formation of chip and its
removal have a remarkable effect on the state of the cutting
tool during turning. This work presents a new technique
using acoustic emission (AE) to monitor the tool condition
by separating the chip formation frequencies from the rest
of the signal which comes mostly from tool wear and
plastic deformation of the work material. A dummy tool
holder and sensor setup have been designed and integrated
with the conventional tool holder system to capture the
time-domain chip formation signals independently during
turning. Several dry turning tests have been conducted at
the speed ranging from 120 to 180 m/min, feed rate from
0.20 to 0.50 mm/rev, and depth of cut from 1 to 1.5 mm.
The tool insert used was TiN-coated carbide while the work
material was high-carbon steel. The signals from the
dummy setup clearly differ from the AE signals of the
conventional setup. It has been observed that time-domain
signal and corresponding frequency response can predict
the tool conditions. The rate of tool wear was found to
decrease with chip breakage even at higher feed rate. The
tool wear and plastic deformation were viewed to decrease
with the increased radius of chip curvature and thinner chip
M. S. H. Bhuiyan (*) : I. A. Choudhury : N. Yusoff
Department of Engineering Design and Manufacture,
Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya,
50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
e-mail: sayem_um@yahoo.com
I. A. Choudhury
e-mail: imtiaz@um.edu.my
N. Yusoff
e-mail: nukman@um.edu.my
thickness even at the highest cutting speed, and these have
been verified by measuring tool wear. The chip formation
frequency has been found to be within 97.7 to 640 kHz.
Keywords Tool state monitoring . Plastic deformation .
Chip formation . Acoustic emission . Tool wear
1 Introduction
Machining is embedded from the beginning of manufacturing
to shape the material into the desired dimensional object. Each
machining process has some exclusive individuality, which is
involved with specific type of operation. The entire particular
phenomena have their own effect on the process and also on
the tool state. The effect on the tool could be mechanical,
chemical, thermal, and abrasive, but all these results in tool
wear, tool fracture, and breakdown. Tool wear causes extra
power consumption and leads to inaccurate tolerances. Tool
breakdown interrupts the operation and affects the product
quality. To prevent tool failure and uncertainties, effective
monitoring system should have to be in place for keeping the
tool under surveillances. Currently, wide ranges of monitoring
systems are available for tool condition monitoring. Some of
them use the direct monitoring method, and some other use
indirect method, whereas both drive to correlate system output
signal with occurrences more accurately. All these methods
represent the entire happenings during operation and are able
to characterize the output signal into different occurrences
according to the pattern of the signal. The assumption is
use to interpret the signal and to correlate the signal pattern
with the sources of occurrences. However, definitely physical
visualization will be more effective and acceptable than the
assumption. This is a prerequisite to know all about the
tentative causes of tool state derogation before adapting a
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monitoring system. The temperature or cutting speed is the
major factor affecting wear mechanisms [1]. At slow cutting
speeds, adhesion and abrasion are the main wear mechanisms.
Abrasion and chemical wear is essential at high cutting
speeds, especially in continuous chip formation [2]. The heat
generation and the chip formation dominate the tool wear
much. In metal cutting, the material removal from the
workpiece is done by chip formation and is accomplished
into two steps: chip generation and chip disposal/removal.
Chip’s generation is also carried out into two stages: plastic
deformation and crack growth. Each step and stage of material
removal has its individuality and its own effect on the tool
state. So the tool state monitoring by observing the chip
removal might be an effective technique. It has a different
level of effect on the tool face depending on chips’ energy
content and its types as well [3]. The effect of chip formation
depends on several things like how does the chip form, its
type, how does it separate, how (speedy/slowly) is it removed,
the level of energy content, the temperature content, and the
intensity of chip impact on the tool face and so on. The plastic
deformation of the work material and progressive tool wear
comprise continuous but comparatively low level of energy.
The crack growth, chip formation, and chip removal contain
considerably high levels of energy; however, they recur with
certain frequency. Thereby the effect on the tool state is like
the burst and discontinuous. In addition, the chip formation
and the removal are dominated by the cutting conditions. The
increase in cutting speed comes with thin chips [3]. The
corresponding effect of chip formation on the tool face is
reduced and hence the wear. At the high cutting speed, the
chip thickness reduces because with the increase of cutting
speed, the controlled chip region decreases [4]. The chip
formation has its own effect on tool state based on its types.
The cutting tool experiences different level of wear from
different chip geometry. With the decrease of chip curvature,
the cutting force, the chip thickness, and the contact length are
increased [5]. The consequent effect of tool geometry on
cutting tool is increased and thus the tool wear. The different
types of chip formation from the workpiece affect both the
flank and rake faces of tool insert and propagate wear. The
chip abrades much of the tool insert, and it also carries away
most of the heat generated from metal cutting during its
removal [6]. The chip formation and all other occurrences in
machining require to be well investigated to avoid any
undesirable catastrophic tool failure during machining.
This paper describes a promising technique to separate
the chip formation signal from the whole sources of
occurrences. The purpose of this work is to distinguish
and differentiate the signal component according to
different occurrences from the complex signal pattern. An
attempt has been made to incorporate a dummy tool insert
in the tool holder and capture chip formation, removal, and
breakage signal along with acoustic emission (AE) signal
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2012) 61:465–479
from the cutting tool. AE signal from the cutting zone
comprises of tool wear, plastic deformation of work
material, chip formation and removal, and tool fracture.
This study will aid to investigate the tool condition more
effectively and would help to develop a skilled control
system. The setup has been designed only for the
experimental purpose and at this point not for practical
use. The objective is to separate the different patterns of the
signal with corresponding occurrence before incorporating
it in the practical application. The investigation of the tool
state would be much more effective and meaningful if the
pattern and frequency of all sources are identified.
2 Acoustic emission in tool condition monitoring
The AE is the transient elastic wave generated by the rapid
release of energy from a localized source or sources within
a material. During the AE process, a stress wave is
generated and propagated through the material. This effect
appeared as plastic deformation, phase transformations,
vacancy coalescence, and decohesion of inclusions and
fracture, which are sources of acoustic emission. However,
only the plastic deformation and fracture have major
significance in metal cutting [7]. Dornfeld pointed out that
the possible AE sources referring to stress waves generated
by the sudden release of energy in deforming material
during metal cutting are (a) plastic deformation of the
workpiece during cutting process, (b) sharing of the chip,
(c) frictional contact between the tool flank face and the
workpiece resulting in flank wear, (d) frictional contact
between the tool rake face and the chip resulting in crater
wear, (e) collisions between chip and tool, (f) chip
breakage, and (g) tool fracture [8]. Figure 1 shows that all
the above sources are associated with three different cutting
zones, namely the primary deformation zone (shear zone),
the secondary deformation zone (tool–chip interface), and
Fig. 1 AE signal generation at tool/chip interface [11]
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2012) 61:465–479
the tertiary zone (rubbing and friction between the tool
flank and newly machined surface). However, from
Cohen’s [9] experimental results, it is confirmed that the
primary deformation zone/shear zone is the largest source
of AE and produces in excess of 75% of the total AE
signal. The AE derived from turning of metals consists of
continuous and transient signals, which have distinctly
different characteristics. Continuous signals are associated
with sharing in the primary zone and wear on the tool flank
and rake face, while burst or transient signals result from
either tool fracture or from chip formation (chip breakage,
chip–tool collision). Therefore, AE sources given in (a) to
(d) generate continuous AE signals, while sources from (e)
to (g) generate transient AE signals [10], since the AE is a
very high-frequency signal and generated from the object’s
internal structure changes. Therefore, the possibility of the
signal disturbance by surrounding noise is considerably
less. The major advantage of using AE to monitor the tool
condition is that the frequency range of the AE signal is
much higher than that of the machine vibrations and
environmental noises and does not interfere with the cutting
operation. Some research has shown that AE has been
successfully used in laboratory tests to detect tool wear and
fracture in single point turning operations [9].
The AE signal captured from a conventional setup is a
complex waveform, and it consists of numerous basic
signals coming from different occurrences during machin-
ing. A wide range of signals is included in the same output
makes it hardly readable. The frequencies due to plastic
deformation, tool wear, breakage, chip formation, chip
removal, process interruption, collision among tool–work-
piece, tool–chip, chip–workpiece, etc. exist in raw signal.
So further processing is required to extract the features from
the signal. Usually, the pattern recognition analysis of AE
signals is used to trace and extract the feature from the
signal. The features extracted from the signals are the
power of the signal, the power of the residual signal, and
the autoregressive parameters of the AE signal. The cutting
process is stochastic in nature, and a number of process
parameters like material properties, tool geometry, etc. can
vary during machining. Diagnosis based on few features
only by fixing a threshold value is inadequate and
undependable for tool wear monitoring. Hence, all the
features need to be considered recognizing a change in the
progressive wear of the tool and making the sensing system
more efficient. This is done by a diagnostic system based
on a pattern recognition technique [7]. Before adopting the
pattern recognition system, feature reduction is done by
selecting only the best features using feature selection
criteria, i.e., class mean criteria [12]. It is generally agreed
that the continuous-type AE signals are associated with
plastic deformations and tool wear during metal cutting,
while the burst-type signals are observed during crack
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growth inside the material. Additionally, tool fracture, chip
breaking, chip impacts, or chip tangling generate a burst-
type AE signals [13–15]. As the chip formation is
accomplished with crack growth, chip break, and chip
removal, it is believed that the chip formation produces a
transient burst AE signal during metal cutting. The RMS
value of burst AE signal due to tool fracture depends on
fracture area [16]. However, the AE signals associated with
catastrophic tool failure are not influenced significantly by
the engagement and disengagement of the tool, depth of cut
and feed rate [15]. It is reported that the change in the AE
RMS value at the point of tool failure is not significant,
especially during interrupted cutting [17]. So the use of raw
AE and other modulated form of the signals are rather
meaningful than AE RMS values in interrupted cutting.
Though the amplitude of chip formation signals is not the
highest, it appears as a burst.
3 Materials and method
The conventional tool setup and signal processing methods
are not able to serve the purpose of this work. To investigate
the chip formation signal from the complex waveform, it is
necessary to separate and capture the signal independently. To
materialize the objective, the conventional tool holder setup
has to be modified. The raw AE signal and its RMS are used to
illustrate the sensor output coming from the modified tool–
sensor setup.
3.1 Modified tool and sensor setup
A special tool setup is designed and fabricated to make it
possible to separate the transient signal generated from chip
formation occurrences. One dummy tool setup that has
been replicating the conventional tool setup is designed and
integrated to the conventional tool setup. The dummy tool
holder and tool insert arrangement has designed and
fabricated to aid the AE signal to follow about the same
path of transmission from sources to a sensor. Even though
there would be some deviation of signal got from the
difference of material properties of the tool holders, for
both locations of sensor, the AE signals transmit from
sources to the sensor through a tool insert and tool holder as
well. The dummy tool insert and tool holder arrangement is
mounted over the main tool insert and tool holder
arrangement. The dummy tool holder is clamped using
clamping bolts. The dummy insert is in a bit off position
with respect to the main tool setup so that it cannot come in
contact with the workpiece during the cutting operation.
However, the chips that are released during metal cutting
would come in contact with the dummy insert as it leaves
the workpiece. A rubber insulation of 2 mm is placed in
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Fig. 2 The setup for separating and capturing chip removal signal: a schematic view and b real view
between the main and dummy tool holder to avoid the
mutual vibration effect on the signal. The rubber piece has
helped to damp the low-frequency components from plastic
deformation and tool wear, besides the AE sensor and the
data acquisition (DAQ) system let the signal above 50 kHz
to pass to storage. It is considered that the combine effect of
rubber and DAQ could successfully make the dummy setup
signal independent and uninfluenced. A piezoelectric AE
sensor is placed on the dummy toll holder to sense the
acoustic emission generated during cutting. This is placed
on the dummy tool holder as close as possible to the spot of
collision between chip and dummy tool insert. The whole
setup is sketched in Fig. 3 in details. The performance of
the dummy arrangement is tested and has got a satisfactory
response. The AE signals from the new modified tool–
sensor setup carries only the transient signal. Since the chip
strike, the dummy tool insert forms, breaks, and is
removed; the signal obtained from the new setup shows
the chip formation occurrences corresponding to the
different cutting conditions. As the sensor is placed on the
Fig. 3 The AE signal measuring chain in metal cutting
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2012) 61:465–479
dummy tool holder and it never comes in contact with the
main tool holder assembly, the sensor transient AE signal does
not include the tool fracture signal. Figure 2a shows schematic
of the modified tool holder setup while Fig. 2b shows a real
view of the setup during cutting. This approach is not yet a
customized technique; however, it would be a potential
approach to monitor the tool state more effectively.
3.2 The AE signal acquisition technique
The procedure of AE signal acquisition during metal
cutting follows the pattern schematically illustrated in
Fig. 3. The KISTLER 8152B AE-piezoelectric sensor
mounted on the dummy tool shank is placed as close as
possible to the chip removal zone. The AE sensor has a
frequency range from 50 kHz to 1 MHz. The sensor hold-
down force of several Newtons is used to ensure good
contact and to minimize the coupling thickness.
Because of high impedance of the sensor, it must be
directly connected to a coupler which contains a buffer
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2012) 61:465–479 469

Table 1 Cutting conditions frequency noise components, which are inevitably present in
Cutting Cutting speed Feed rate Depth of AE signal, are considered not to be correlated with the
conditions (m/min) (mm/rev) cut (mm) occurrences and hence useless. Besides, it requires much
energy to amplify such low frequencies and thus affect the
1 120 0.32 1 useful band of the signal to amplify properly. Therefore, those
2 120 0.32 1.5 components should be eliminated (using high-pass filter) at
3 120 0.50 1 the earliest possible stage of signal processing to enable usage
4 120 0.50 1.5 of full amplitude range of the equipment. The low-pass filter is
5 120 0.20 1 used to filter out the high-frequency noise components to
6 120 0.20 1.5 avoid electric sparks or aliasing of frequencies. The filtered
7 150 0.32 1 AE signal is then amplified and digitized before storing for
8 150 0.32 1.5 further processing.
9 150 0.50 1
10 150 0.50 1.5 3.3 Experimental details
11 150 0.20 1
12 150 0.20 1.5 The turning operation is performed on a COLCHESTER
13 180 0.32 1 VS MASTER3250 165×1,270-mm gap bed center lathe.
14 180 0.32 1.5 The workpiece is a round bar (85 mm diameter and
15 180 0.50 1 760 mm long) of ASSAB-705, medium carbon steel
16 180 0.50 1.5 (hardness HB 270–310). By weight, it contains carbon
17 180 0.20 1 (0.35%), chromium (1.40%), iron (95.95%), manganese
18 180 0.20 1.5 (0.70%), molybdenum (0.20%), and nickel (1.40%). The
TiN-coated carbide, type: TNMG 16 04 08-PM tool insert
and PTGNR 2020K-16 tool holder assembly, is used as a
amplifier. A KISTLER-5125B-type coupler and a DEWE-43 main tool arrangement. For the dummy arrangement of the
module are used in this experiment. The coupler allows the tool, a mild steel tool holder is used, whereas the tool insert
signal to pass through a high-pass filter and cut off below 50- is the same. The experiment has been conducted in dry
kHz frequencies. Then the signal feeds into the DEWE-43 cutting mode for this investigation. The cutting conditions
module which cut off very high frequencies above 1,000 kHz. and tool–workpiece combination has a significant role on
The coupler and DEWE-43 module jointly acts as a band-pass tool wear. Continuous cut is conducted for every 2 min to
filter which has a low cutoff frequency of 50 kHz and a high remove the material from the work piece. The conditions
cutoff frequency of 1,000 kHz. The necessary modification of under which the experiment is carried out are tabulated
the raw signal is undertaken inside this module. Low- below in Table 1.

Fig. 4 a Raw AE signal taken from the conventional setup showing different incidences during turning at cutting speed 180 m/min, feed rate
0.32 mm/rev, and depth of cut 1.5 mm; b RMS of the same signal
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Fig. 5 The raw AE signals a from conventional tool setup and b from dummy tool setup without any insulation between the main and dummy
tool holder
4 Result and discussion
The tool condition monitoring becomes fruitful when the AE
signal representation is comprehensive and unambiguous. The
AE can extract more information from the monitored
occurrences after analyzing the raw AE signal. The raw AE
signal is the representation of all incidences described in
signal during turning. The RMS shows the average energy
content in the raw signal. The raw AE, its frequency level, and
RMS AE are capable of giving some significant information
about the occurrences.
The raw AE signals are very squiggle and stochastic in
nature. It is a resultant illustration of all occurrences that takes
place during turning. During normal turning, some major
occurrences like the plastic deformation, tool wear, tool
Fig. 6 a RMS signal of Fig. 5a and b RMS signal of Fig. 5b
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2012) 61:465–479
fracture, and chip formation all have significant effect on tool
state and hence on the AE signal. For the conventional setup
of AE sensor, the continuous, low amplitude pattern of raw
signals represents plastic deformation and tool wear, whereas
the burst and discrete pattern of signal represent the chip
formation and tool fracture occurrences. For tool breakage, the
burst signal amplitude will be higher and momentarily the
signal is lost for a short interval. Both types of signal pattern
co-exist in the raw AE signal. Because of its random shape, it
is quite difficult to exactly measure the magnitude of
continuous-type low-amplitude pattern from the raw signals
until separation is possible. The dummy tool setup is used to
separate the chip formation frequencies from others. After
separation, the continuous and the transient pattern of AE
signal stand separate and are easily distinguishable. The
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2012) 61:465–479 471

Fig. 7 Raw AE signal a taken from the conventional tool setup at cutting speed 120 m/min, feed rate 0.32 mm/rev, and depth of cut 1.5 mm; b
captured from the dummy tool setup with insulation at cutting speed 120 m/min, feed rate 0.32 mm/rev, and depth of cut 1.5 mm

continuous, low amplitude AE signal represents the plastic
deformation and tool wear, whereas the transient AE signal
corresponds to chip formation. The raw AE signals captured
from the system are more meaningful to correlate with the
occurrences.
4.1 AE signal pattern
The raw AE signal of Fig. 4a represents all the occurrences
or sources during turning. Two types of pattern are more
distinct in the signal: (a) the continuous and low amplitude
pattern and (b) the transient and burst pattern. The signal
enclosed in the circle representing the tool breakdown
incidence, however, is not obvious from the raw signal.
From Fig. 4b, it is apparent that the energy content of the
RMS signals fluctuates all along the operation. There is a
sudden drop and die down of the signal at the moment of
tool breakdown.
4.2 AE signals without insulation between the main tool
holder and the dummy tool holder
The raw AE signal of Fig. 5a is captured at a random
cutting condition from the conventional tool setup in

Fig. 8 a RMS signal of Fig. 7a; b RMS signal of Fig. 7b

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Fig. 9 a Raw AE signal taken from dummy tool setup at cutting speed 120 m/min, feed rate 0.32 mm/rev, and depth of cut 1 mm; b RMS of the
same signal

turning. Figure 5b is taken at the same cutting condition from
the dummy tool setup, when there was no insulation between
the main and dummy tool holders. The signal of Fig. 6a, b
represents the RMS form of signal Fig. 5a, b, respectively.
From Fig. 5a, b, it is obvious that there is no remarkable
difference between the signals except the amplitude. The
RMS signals of Fig. 6a, b represent the energy content of
corresponding raw AE signal. From Fig. 6a, the energy
content of the AE signal captured from the conventional
setup fluctuates between 0.0019 and 0.4837 V while that
from the dummy setup (refer Fig. 6b), the fluctuation is
between 0.0052 and 0.1713 V. As there is no insulation
between the tool holders, almost the entire frequency of AE
signal from the main tool holder is transmitted to the dummy
tool holder. However, due to system loss, some of signal
frequencies might be missing and thereby the amplitude of
the dummy setup AE signal is different from the amplitude
of signal taken from the main tool setup. Therefore, to
eliminate the effect of interaction, insulation is needed
between the dummy setup and the main tool holder.

Fig. 10 a Raw AE signal taken from dummy tool setup at cutting speed 120 m/min, feed rate 0.32 mm/rev, and depth of cut 1.5 mm; b RMS of
the same signal
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4.3 AE signal with insulation between the main tool holder
and the dummy tool holder
Figure 7a, b shows that the raw AE signals are captured at
the same cutting conditions from the conventional tool
setup and dummy tool setup, respectively. The signals are
captured with insulation provided between the main tool
holder and the dummy one. Figure 8a, b shows the RMS
AE signals of Fig. 7a, b, respectively. The raw AE signal, a
type of complex wave that is captured from the conventional
tool setup, has a fluctuation around a mean value which is
zero in this case. However, the signals from the dummy tool
holder (with insulation) which is supposed to capture only
the chip formation, removal, and breakage is clearly offset
from the zero mean axis. The signals from the conventional
setup show all the occurrences taking place and contain
various frequencies and energies. On the contrary, the signal
from the dummy setup (with insulation) coming from chip
formation has the only high-energy frequency components
and is therefore offset. Comparing Figs. 5b and 7b, it is clear
Fig. 11 The raw AE signal captured from the dummy tool setup at cutting speed 150 m/min, depth of cut 1 mm, and with three different feed
rates a at 0.20 mm/rev, b at 0.32 mm/rev, and c at 0.50 mm/rev
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that the rubber insulation placed between the conventional
and dummy tool holder has performed successfully and
eliminated interaction effect. Similar observations have been
made with regard to the RMS signals (Figs. 6b and 8b).
Based on the analysis, the values remaining below the offset
of transient signal indirectly represent the continuous, low
amplitude components and, therefore, the tool wear and
plastic deformation. This is because the signal from the new
setup isolates the chip formation components from the whole
domain. The offset signal represents the chip formation
occurrences which have high-energy content.
Figures 9a, b and 10a, b represent raw AE and its RMS
signal at two different depths of cut with same cutting
speed and feed rate, respectively. From these figures, it is
obvious that the amplitude of signal increases with the
increase of depth of cut at constant speed and feed rate. At
1 mm depth of cut, the RMS values lie between 1.064 and
3.005 V; while at 1.5 mm depth of cut, the RMS values
fluctuate between 1.0046 and 3.4533 V. This is because,
with the increase of depth of cut, the chip thickness is
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increases, and therefore, it affects both the chip formation
and the corresponding AE signal. From the frequency analysis,
it is observed that, at the cutting speed of 120 m/min, feed rate
0.32 mm/rev, and depth of cut 1 mm, the frequency of chip
formation lies between 97.7 and 430 kHz. However, with the
change of depth of cut to 1.5 mm, it fluctuates from 97.7 to
420 kHz.
Figure 11a–c represents the AE signal at constant cutting
speed and depth of cut with three different feed rates. All
the AE signals are captured from the dummy tool setup
with insulation between the main and dummy tool holder.
Figure 12 shows the corresponding RMS signal of Fig. 11.
From Fig. 12a, it is observed that at feed rate 0.20 mm/rev,
the RMS values of the AE signal lies between 2.7205 and
3.3149 V while the frequency of chip formation varies from
97.7 to 270 kHz. However, as the feed rate increases, both
the RMS and frequencies response are mixed in nature. At
feed rate of 0.32 mm/rev, the RMS value fluctuates within
2.178 and 6.8387 V and the frequency from 97.7 to
640 kHz. At the highest feed rate of 0.5 mm/rev, it is
expected that both RMS value and frequency of chip
formation would increase. The RMS values at 0.50 mm/rev
fluctuates between 3.8211 to 3.3149 V while the frequency
lies within 97.7 to 570 kHz, which are smaller than that at
0.32 mm/rev. Because of chip breakage, RMS value and
Fig. 12 a RMS signal of Fig. 11a, b RMS signal of Fig. 11b, and c RMS signal of Fig. 11c
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2012) 61:465–479
frequency response at 0.50 mm/rev are found smaller than
that at 0.32 mm/rev. The continuous chip is maintained
until the feed rate of 0.32 mm/rev. From Fig. 12a–c, it is
apparent that the RMS values of tool wear and plastic
deformation decrease even at high feed rate due to chip
breakage.
Figure 13 represents the AE signals at constant feed rate
and depth of cut with three different cutting speeds. The AE
signals are taken from the dummy tool setup with insulation
between the main and dummy tool holder. Figure 14 shows
the corresponding RMS signal of Fig. 13. At cutting speed
of 120 m/min with constant feed rate and depth of cut, the
RMS value lies in between 0.9966 and 3.9533 V while the
frequency varies from 97.7 to 430 kHz. As the cutting
speed changes to 150 m/min, the RMS vales fluctuate
between 1.6708 and 5.306 V and the frequency between
97.7 and 640 kHz. At the highest cutting speed 180 m/min,
the RMS values fluctuate between 2.0449 and 5.3064 V
whereas the frequency response lies within 97.7 and
190 kHz. The RMS value and frequency response at
cutting speed 180 m/min are decreased from those at
150 m/min indicating chips breakage leading to the
reduction of plastic deformation and tool wear.
The advantages of the dummy setup in capturing the AE
signal and the RMS due to chip formation are:
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2012) 61:465–479
Fig. 13 a The raw AE signal captured from the dummy tool setup at feed rate 0.32 mm/rev, depth of cut 1 mm, and for three different cutting
speeds a at cutting speed 120 m/min, b at cutting speed 150 m/min, and c at cutting speed 180 m/min
(a) From the RMS signal, one can predict the tool wear
and plastic deformation which is impossible from the
signal shown in Fig. 7a of a conventional setup.
(b) The signal from the conventional setup cannot
distinguish the effect of chip formation while this is
clearly visible from the signal of the dummy setup.
4.4 Chip formation using the conventional tool setup
The chips of Fig. 15 are collected from the conventional
tool setup in turning. Figure 15a–f shows the various chips
formed at different cutting conditions indicated in the
figures. The chips are observed to be continuous, helical,
straight, and serrated. Figure 15a, b shows the chips
generated at constant cutting speed of 120 m/min, feed
rate 0.32, and with different depths of cut of 1 and 1.5 mm,
respectively. From Fig. 15a, b, it is noticed that with the
increase of depth of cut, the chip transforms from wavy to
the saw toothed type, and the chip curvature is reduced as
well. With the decrease of chip curvature, the cutting force,
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the chip thickness, and the contact length are increased.
Besides, both the thermal and the frictional effect of saw
toothed chips on the tool insert are most significant. Therefore,
the corresponding effect on the tool state is found to increase.
For Fig. 15a, b, the energy contents of the corresponding AE
signals are 3.005 and 3.4500 V, respectively (refer Figs. 9b
and 10b). The flank wear is measured for the same period of
time. The measured tool wear during chip formation for
Fig. 15a is 0.0094 mm and for Fig. 15b is 0.0162 mm. The
AE signals as well as the measured of tool wear have shown
a similar response to the change of chip formation types.
Figure 15c–e shows the chips formed at constant cutting
speed 150 m/min, depth of cut 1 mm, and with three
different feed rates of 0.20, 0.32, and 0.50 mm/rev,
respectively. With the increase of the feed rate, the chips are
transformed gradually from wavy to serrated, the chip curvature
is changed, and at the highest feed rate (0.50 mm/rev), the
chip breakage occurs. For Fig. 15c–e, the energy
contents of the corresponding AE signals are 3.3149,
6.8387, and 5.5329 V, respectively (refer Fig. 12). The
more remarkable observation is that the energy content of AE
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Fig. 14 a RMS signal of Fig. 13a, b RMS signal of Fig. 13b, and c RMS signal of Fig. 13c
signal increases as the chip transforms from wavy to serrated
and as the chip curvature decreases. However, there is
exception when the chip is broken. The energy content of
the corresponding AE signal is decreased with the chip
breakage. The corresponding tool wears are measured, the
tool wear at feed rate of 0.20 mm/rev is 0.0133 mm, at feed
rate of 0.32 mm/rev is 0.0432 mm, and at feed rate of
0.50 mm/rev is 0.0263 mm. The tool wear has shown an
analogous change to the AE signal and chip formation
occurrences as well. Figure 15a, d, and f shows the chips
formed at constant feed rate of 0.32 mm/rev and depth of cut
of 1 mm with three different cutting speeds of 120, 150, and
180 m/min, respectively. The chips are continuous at all
cutting speed; however, at cutting speed 150 m/min, the
chips are segmented and a reduction in chip curvature is
observed. As the speed changes from 150 to 180 m/min, the
chip thickness decreases while the radius of curvature
increases. Therefore, the corresponding effect on the tool is
decreased. For Fig. 15a, d, and f, the energy contents of the
corresponding AE signals are 3.005, 6.8387, and 4.6289 V,
respectively (refer Fig. 14). From the energy analysis of the
AE signal, it is seen that the energy content of the AE signal
has followed the chip formation occurrences and have
changed with the chip formation types. The energy level of
the AE signal is appeared to rise with the increase of cutting
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2012) 61:465–479
speed. However, at the highest cutting speed (180 m/min), a
drop is observed. This is because of the increased radius of
chip curvature and thinner chip thickness. The corresponding
tool wears for Fig. 15a is 0.0094 mm, for Fig. 15d is
0.0432 mm, and for Fig. 15f is 0.0198 mm. In the case of the
highest cutting speed 180 m/min, the increase in the cutting
speed leads to a decrease in the chip formation zone.
Therefore, the corresponding plastic deformation and the
resultant tool wear are also reduces. From the above
explanation, the response of AE signals comports with the
tool wear and the chip formation in turning.
4.5 Chip formation using the dummy tool setup
Figure 16a–f shows the corresponding chip types that have
been generated from the new modified setup under the
same cutting conditions. The chip’s morphology at different
cutting conditions is observed to be identical with the chips
generated from the conventional setup; however, in some
cases, slight distortion of chip is noticed. Comparing
Figs. 15 and 16, no major change either in chip formation
or in chip curl or in chip breakage is noticed, since the chip
curl is controlled by radius of chip curvature and thus by
the depth of cut and that was being unaffected by the
dummy setup anyway. Therefore, not much change in chip
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2012) 61:465–479
Fig. 15 Chips from the
conventional tool setup at
different cutting conditions
curls is seen. Besides, the tool insert used in the experiment
has chip breaker which breaks the chip and helps it to curl
before making any contact with the insert placed on the
dummy setup. As in the modified setup, the dummy insert
is placed 2 mm above the main insert, and also at an offset
distance from the cutting plane, there is no possibility that
the dummy insert would influence the chip shape. The gap
2 mm is because of rubber insulation placed in between the
main and dummy tool holders. Referring Fig. 2, this could
be clearer. However, the chips (curled/straight) that formed
would touch the dummy tool insert along with leaving the
tool contact point. Thereby, some distortion is observed in
the chip construction. As the main tool insert is our object
of interest, trivial distortion in chip construction is ignored
and is considered not affecting the tool state and the cutting
conditions as well.
Figure 17a–f shows the corresponding flank wear values
at cutting conditions given in either Fig. 15 or Fig. 16 at
which the chips are collected. A new tool insert has been
used for the every cutting condition until failure. The image
of tool wear until failure is not presented in this paper as the
chips collected and presented here are for the initial tool
wear only. The tool flank wear has been measured by
taking the tool insert off from tool holder at the end of
every cut. A magnification of ×40 has been used to capture
the image of flank wear by an light source microscope,
model I CAMSCOPE(G). From the captured image, the
average flank wear has been measured using a measuring
software, Measure IT.
477
5 Conclusions
The plastic deformation and tool wear measure have a
strong dependency on the cutting condition. The chip
formation also has a remarkable effect on the tool life.
The following conclusion could be made based on the
experimental investigations:
& The dummy setup could successfully separate the chip
formation occurrences from the whole domain. The new
technique is capable of independently monitoring the
chip formation effect and also the plastic deformation
and tool wear.
& Visualizing the raw AE signal, its frequency range, and
AE RMS, one can investigate as well as predict the tool
condition. The information about the chip formation
types corresponding to different cutting conditions has
made the monitoring more effective.
& The AE signal from the dummy setup describes the tool
wear, plastic deformation, and chip formation occurrences
more clearly and without any ambiguity. The values
remaining below the offset of the transient AE signal of
the dummy setup presents the plastic deformation and tool
wear. The offset signal shows the chip formation
occurrences in turning.
& The plastic deformation, tool wears, and chip formation
types vary with cutting conditions. The frequency of
chip formation varies from 97.7 to 640 kHz for the
entire cutting conditions, whereas the maximum chip
478 Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2012) 61:465–479

Fig. 16 Chips from the dummy

tool setup at different cutting
conditions

formation frequency has been recorded at cutting speed
of 150 m/min, feed rate of 0.32 mm/rev, and depth of
cut of 1 mm. Increasing the feed rate from 0.32 to
0.50 mm/rev at a constant cutting speed of 150 m/min
and a depth of cut of 1 mm, the tool wear has decreased
from 0.0432 to 0.0263 mm, and the chips were found to
break at the highest feed. The amplitudes of RMS AE
signals also drop from 6.8387 to 5.5329 V.
& On the other hand, at constant feed rate 0.32 mm/
rev and depth of cut 1 mm, with the increase of
cutting speed from 150 to 180 m/min, the chip
thickness has decreased while the radius of curvature
increased. The resultant tool wear has reduced from
0.432 to 0.0198 mm. The energy level of the
corresponding AE signal has also dropped from
6.8387 to 4.6289 V.
& With the drop of amplitude in the chip formation
frequency, the band remaining below the RMS signals
also shrinks indicating a reduction in plastic deformation
and tool wear rate as well.

Fig. 17 Tool flank wear at

different cutting conditions a b

VBaverage= 0.0094 mm VBaverage= 0.0162 mm

c d
VBaverage= 0.0133 mm
VBaverage= 0.0432 mm

e f
VBaverage= 0.0263 mm VBaverage= 0.0198 mm
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2012) 61:465–479
& This investigation shows that the chip breakage reduces
the rate of tool wear progression even at higher feed
rate.
& The tool wear has decreased with the decrease of chip
thickness and increase of radius of chip curvature.
Hence, the dummy setup has made it possible to predict
tool wear progression. The next challenge is to separate the
frequency of plastic deformation from the tool wear so that
on line tool condition monitoring becomes much more
effective.
Acknowledgments The authors would like to thank the UMRG,
University of Malaya for providing the funds to carry out this work.
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