Measurement of nose radius wear in turning tools from a single 2D image using machine vision

Flank and crater wear in cutting tools have been extensively studied in the past using direct and indirect methods. In finish and hard turning, however, nose radius wear plays a greater role in determining the surface quality of the finished product. This is due to the direct interaction between the tool nose area and the workpiece during machining. Nose radius wear can be measured from the 2D profiles of the tool before and after machining using a vision method. This approach, however, requires two images of cutting tools to be recorded and precisely aligned before subtraction. This work proposes a new method of measuring nose wear area from a single 2D image of the worn tool. The nose profile is extracted in the Cartesian coordinates and converted to a polar-radius plot. From the plot, the nose wear area is determined by simple subtraction.