Design of a Three-Component Force Sensor for Meso-Milling Applications

Accurate measurement of three-component cutting forces in meso-milling applications is imperative for the manufacturing of miniaturized complex three dimensional (3D) components that are in demand for a wide variety of industries. Considering the limitations of commercial force sensors in sensing resolution and frequency bandwidth for such measurement task, a novel three-component piezoelectric force sensor is designed in this thesis to address these issues. The novelty of the research is in the investigation into the use of "hard" piezoelectric ceramic materials for the sensing elements in order to achieve high sensing resolution and sufficient frequency bandwidth for the force sensor. An analytical measurement model is developed for analyzing sensor performance, namely sensing resolution and frequency bandwidth, while measuring the cutting forces in proposed meso-milling applications. Simulations with respect to the analytical measurement model demonstrate that the designed force sensor can be used for meso-milling applications. The overall measurement system architecture is also implemented in the thesis for processing the sensor output signals.