b'Monitoring Microdrill Wear and BreakageM achining tiny holes with solid- system for monitoring tool wear andHe said the system provides true carbide microdrills presents abreakage is no better than 1 or 2 W,power monitoring in which current host of challenges, one of which isdetecting anything about a micro- consumption is combined with volt-monitoring tool wear and breakage. drill is impossible. age to provide an accurate repre-Tracking microdrilling applica- To overcome that obstacle, Digi- sentation of whats actually happen-tions in real time can be problem- tal Way offers the WattPilote mon- ing at the cutting edge.atic because a drill thats 0.1 mmitoring system, said John Cosic,He said the use of a resistive (0.0039") in diameter, for example,North American sales and serviceshunt sensor differentiates the sys-has a power consumption of 0.2 Wmanager. Hes based in Simi Val- tem from other power monitors for when cutting steel, according toley, California, and the companymachining applications.Digital Way Inc. If the resolution of aalso has an office in Troy, Michigan.From the perspective of the An example is shown of a 0.47 mm-dia. (0.0185") drill on a 5-kW spindle. Machining power is about 5.5 W. The red curve represents a new drill, and the blue lines are the upper and lower power limits. Note the increases in power due to drill wear.32.7627.321.8416.3810.925.4600.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9Watts vs. seconds22JULY 2021SmallParts.indd 22 6/17/21 11:09 AM'