Abstract
Experimental cutting tests on C45 carbon steel turning were performed for sensor fusion based monitoring of chip form through cutting force components and radial displacement measurement. A Principal Component Analysis algorithm was implemented to extract characteristic features from acquired sensor signals. A pattern recognition decision making support system was performed by inputting the extracted features into feed-forward back-propagation neural networks aimed at single chip form classification and favourable/unfavourable chip type identification. Different neural network training algorithms were adopted and a comparison was proposed.