The efficacy of back propagation neural network with delta bar delta learning in predicting the wear of carbide inserts in face milling

Face milling is a process predominantly affected by dynamic variation of cutting forces, thermo-mechanical shocks and vibration leading to catastrophic tool failure along with gradual wear of the inserts. Keeping in view the industrial importance of this process, it is necessary to devise suitable methods to predict in advance the onset of tool failure without grossly impairing the machining set-up and the job. Hence, the applicability of back propagation neural network with delta bar delta learning rule for faster convergence has been studied with the above objective. The multi sensor based tool condition monitoring strategy shows that the learning rate adaptation scheme combined with the selection of suitable process parameters drastically reduces the training time of the artificial neural network without dispensing with the prediction accuracy.