Machining quality prediction using acoustic sensors and machine learning

The online automatic estimation of the quality of products manufactured in any machining process without any manual intervention represents an important step toward a more efficient, smarter manufacturing industry. Machine learning and Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN), in particular, were used in this study for the monitoring and prediction of the machining quality conditions in a high-speed milling of stainless steel (AISI 303) using a 3mm tungsten carbide. The quality was predicted using the Acoustic Emission (AE) signals captured during the cutting operations. The spectrograms created from the AE signals were provided to the CNN for a 3-class quality level. A promising average f1-score of 94% was achieved.