International Journal of Electrical & Computer Sciences IJECS-IJENS Vol: 10 No: 06 41 106606-4141 IJECS-IJENS © December 2010 IJENS I J E N S Design of a Wireless Temperature Acquisition System for Laser Cutting Process M. Mokhtar, M. S. A. Mansor, O. Sidek, M. Q. Omar, H. Edin and M.A. Miskam Abstract—This paper presents the development of a wireless temperature acquisition system for the laser cutting processing of an advanced engineering material. The wireless system effectively automates the temperature monitoring activities. The system is comprised of hardware, software, and a personal computer (PC). The wireless system module architecture consists of a power subsystem, a sensor subsystem, and a main node system mainly based on wireless radio frequency (RF) technology. The advantages of this system are management of data, response to temperature alert, ease, and accuracy of required documentation. The workability of the developed integrated wireless sensor was tested at the Manufacturing Laboratory, School of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia. The collected data were used to evaluate the system workability. Data shows that the system can measure and monitor the temperature in the time and distance ranges. This work is a significant start towards temperature monitoring using wireless system networks (WSN) for laser cutting process monitoring. Keywords—Temperature monitoring, wireless sensor, laser cutting, process monitoring I. INTRODUCTION Process monitoring systems have the advantage of avoiding unexpected failures and greatly improving system reliability and maintainability. Its greater access to process parameters also gives better visibility and ultimately better decision- making power. These systems are usually associated with data acquisition systems to measure the parameters using sensors. Data measured by sensors are then transmitted through wired communication to the processing system. However, these systems can be very expensive and inflexible. With the evolution of communication technologies, data have been allowed to be transmitted wirelessly. Currently, wireless technologies, especially wireless sensors and sensors networks that integrate sensor technology, MEMS technology, wireless communication technology, embedded computing technology and distributed information management technology, have been rapidly developing. The advantages of wireless transmission are the significant reduction and simplification in wiring and harness, implementation of otherwise impossible sensor applications, such as monitoring dangerous, hazardous, unwired, or remote areas and locations, faster deployment and installation of various types of sensors, reduction of complexity of accessing more measurement points, extremely low cost, small size, low power requirement, and mobility [1]. Laser cutting of engineering metals finds applications in the industry due to their non- contact process, high precision capability, high quality surface finish (narrow kerf width, straight cut edges, low roughness of cut surfaces, and minimum metallurgical and surface distortions), and easy integration with computer numerically controlled (CNC) machines for cutting complex profiles [2]. Alternatively, this technology has been used to study machine advanced engineering materials, such as tungsten, titanium [3], ceramic [4], aluminium alloys, inconnel, tantalum, and metal matrix composite. Laser cutting involves many operating parameters to achieve good cutting performance, such as laser power, cutting Manuscript received November 9, 2010. Financial support from the Universiti Sains Malaysia Research University Grant, account no.: 811118 is gratefully acknowledged. M. Mokhtar and M. S. A. Mansor are with the School of Mechanical Engineering, Engineering Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia,14300, Nibong Tebal, Seri Ampangan, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia (mohzani@eng.usm.my). O. Sidek, M. Qayum, H. Edin and M. A. Miskam are with the Collaborative Microelectronic Design Excellence Center, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 14300 Nibong Tebal, Pulau Pinang Malaysia (othman@cedec.usm.my; qayum@cedec.usm.my; hashim@cedec.usm.my; azman@cedec.usm.my, phone: +6045995856, fax: +6045941025)