Design of a Control System for Quality Maintenance on Cutting Edges of Files Production

Abstract

The file cutting edges are the most important parameter that influence the performance of the filing operation. The practice shows that the most efficient way of generating these cutting edges is by penetration, by blow, of a cutting tool, which creates a plastic deformation on the file body. The penetration depth is probably the most important factor of the final quality of a file. In the existing machines of files manufacturing, this depth is manually adjusted by the operator, using specific mechanism. This means that files are manufactured on an empirical basis, relying on subjective factors, that do not allow to keep constant quality level of the production. In a research work, being developed in the University of Minho, it is intended to eliminate the subjectivity factors by the means of the evolution of the present “all-mechanical” system to a “mechatronic” one. In this paper, which is related with that research work, it presented a study of a round files production machine, regarding the identification, as well as the categorisation, of the operating parameters that affect the cutting edges production. They are, as well, defined and quantified those factors that influence the final quality of a round file.