Piezoelectric diaphragm and digital signal processing in the estimation of surface roughness of ceramic components in the grinding process

Abstract

The grinding process is widely used in surface finishing of ceramics components and corresponds to one of the last stages in the manufacturing process. The monitoring of this process is therefore essential. Thus, a real-time monitoring system is needed to assist the operator in decision making in order to optimize and reduce process costs. On the other hand, the monitoring of the grinding process by means of piezoelectric diaphragm has been little reported in literature. Thus, the objective of the present work is to propose a new technique to estimate the surface roughness of ceramic alumina workpieces in the surface grinding process using piezoelectric diaphragm and advanced techniques of digital signal processing. The experimental setup will be built and tests will be performed, in which the piezoelectric diaphragm, acoustic emission sensor and power signals will be collected. The piezoelectric diaphragm results will be compared with those of the acoustic emission sensor, which is already a consolidated sensor in machining process monitoring systems. The combination of the information from the sensors will also be performed, aiming to extract characteristics for the estimation of roughness. As a result of the work, a non-destructive technique will be obtained to estimate the roughness of ground ceramic workpieces by means of a low-cost piezoelectric diaphragm and / or fusion of the aforementioned sensors, and with characteristics that provide reliability and robustness and, consequently, contributing to the monitoring, automation, control and optimization of the process. (AU)