Thin film sensor for wear detection of cutting tools

This contribution deals with novel smart tools for the cutting industry. Based on the combintion of advanced coating techniques with an efficient sensor- and MEMS technology smart tools have been realized, which enable on-line control of the cutting conditions measured directly at the cutting edges. For achieving this, special thin film sensors for measurement of wear have been integrated into the hard coating system of cutting inserts. Since the sensors are arranged at the vertical flank of inserts, the electrical wiring must run over the edges to a shadowed flank area, where electrical contacts are placed. The sensors are being connected by theses contacts to an electronic module, which contained signal conditioning and telemetric transfer of the data to the control station of the lathe. We will report on the whole fabrication technique incl. a novel micro structuring technique based on photolithography and reactive ion etching. Moreover, first results on application tests by cutting steel will be shown.