Not a day goes by without seeing another article on Artificial Intelligence (AI). It has become the buzz phrase of the past year. The problem with AI is that it gives many people the same fear that robotics did in the past. The human mind quickly moves to the point where this technology is going to destroy mankind.
When robotics was introduced into the mainstream store, people couldn’t help but think that robots were going to destroy them and take over the world. AI seems to have developed the same kind of visual problem, as we fear that AI may take over all of our computer systems.
While this may happen if the AI is not in control, I believe it is being closely monitored to prevent problems. Applied properly, AI will help revolutionize the machining industry and bring with it tools that will make our machine shops perform better.
AI is presented as instant access to a whole world of information and technology. Combined with human knowledge, it can help us realize things that previously took us a long time to do. AI can gather relevant knowledge so quickly and enable decisions to be made very quickly. AI can also apply knowledge much faster than in the past.
AI has the potential to revolutionize the way machine shops operate and streamline processes for greater productivity and profitability. I believe AI will improve our shops by improving three areas of our machine shops:
- Tool selection. These days, when we are faced with different materials, we need to choose the best milling and turning tools for the job. Unfortunately, research on the Internet and through traditional methods such as salespeople and trade shows can be slow and limited. AI has access to the majority of the world’s knowledge and experiences. It can quickly offer the right tooling for our current task. This means we will be able to continuously improve the machining process with the latest tooling. AI can also process tooling evaluations very quickly from online experiments, and come up with lists of alternative tools if the initial recommended tooling is not available. This choice of tooling through AI will make our shops much more productive.
- CNC programming. AI will help us program machine tools faster than ever before. There is a lot of information on the Internet regarding programming strategies, and AI has access to it all. It can evaluate programming methods very quickly and adopt multiple strategies to get the program right. This may begin with offering strategies that take into account certain attributes that we are looking for. This can be a balance between program cycle time and tooling longevity based on different materials. This will make tool paths much better than many of today’s canned cycles because it will consider many variables with access to more information. That doesn’t mean we won’t be in charge of programs, but we will have many more options and strategies that we don’t have today. These options can then be balanced by what we think is important, and the AI can implement them.
- Machine vibration monitoring. Much research has been done on machine vibration monitoring. We know that harmonics in machining really affect performance and surface finish. Unfortunately, many of today’s monitoring systems are rather manual and slow to produce results. This means many shops must go through a lot of trial and error to find the right speeds and feeds to minimize harmonics and maximize efficiency. AI can really start to solve this slow process. With sensors built into the machine tool, we can have AI continuously tuning the machining process. It will also remember previous settings that it can use as baselines. I think it will revolutionize the machining process by making machine vibration monitoring more mainstream. Machine tools can use AI to automatically remove chatter, while simultaneously optimizing feeds and speeds to maximize productivity. Can you imagine an AI optimizing your programs from a speed and feed perspective based on active vibration/harmonics monitoring? Parts and finish quality will increase and cycle times can be much faster.
These three areas are just the tip of the iceberg of things that AI can potentially improve in machine shops. AI is going to be a tool to increase productivity in the same way that robotics has, and to make our lives easier. If AI is seen as a tool to increase productivity, it should be very easy to adopt. We’re always looking for ways to improve our machine shops, and AI will certainly help.