Page 19 - Annual Report_AMTDC-2018-19new

AMTDC 2018 - 2019

n Grinding process Intelligence
8. Development of Automation i

AMTDC (IIT-Madras) team: Yamini Singh, Supriyo Mahata, Ajay Vignesh,

Omkar Banne, P. Pradeep Kumar, Piyush Shakya

Industry Partner: Micromatic Grinding Technologies, Bangalore

Project Highlights

We report an indigenous development of a process monitoring system for achieving a
fully automated grinding operation. Unlike other machining processes, even a small variation
in the grinding input has a large impact on the performance of the grinding. Therefore,
developing a process monitoring system which is self-learning from the input variations and
from their effects on output has been a challenging task. A detailed study of the system over
several cycles led to the understanding of the relationships between the parameters. The
grinding machine is equipped with sensors which feed the information about the process
parameters continuously back to the control system which automatically learns the pattern
using Machine Learning Techniques. This learning or ‘Acquired Intelligence’ by the system is
then used to control the grinding process to get the desired output in terms of surface finish,

cycle time, dimensional tolerance etc. This technology is an important step towards ‘Smart
Manufacturing’ and Industry 4.0. The monitoring system and intelligence are in-built into the
grinding machines and can be used in any manufacturing industry covering a variety of sectors
ranging from defense, aerospace, automotive, textile and energy sectors. The implementation
of this system will bring productivity gains and greater precision to grinding operations in
Industries.

Current Status

Grinding machines with only the data acquisition system is currently being sold by
Micromatic Grinding Technologies from which the process knowledge is obtained manually by
their customers. On completion of this project, MGT will be able to incorporate the
automation software along with the data acquisition system to deliver “intelligent grinding
machines”. The developed software was showcased in IMTEX 2019, Bangalore.

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