The Pursuit of High-Speed, High-Precision Micromachining...
MIT SEMINAR SERIES IN MANUFACTURING AND PRODUCTIVITY
Place: Room 33-116 Time: 12:00 P.M. Tuesday, April 29th, 2008
Dr. J. Rhett Mayor
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
This seminar will focus on the development of high-speed, high-precision micro-milling processes, considering the differing process mechanics encountered at micro-scale machining and the development of scale-sensitive high-speed, high-precision machining techniques. The development of micro-meso scale machine tools (mMTs) during the last decade has successfully demonstrated the feasibility of micro/meso-scale mechanical machining processes as an alternative to traditional, photolithographic MEMS-style production. Even with mMT technology now being successfully transitioned into early-adoption industrial applications, there remain significant challenges in mass-production micro-mechanical machining that are limiting factors in the broad adoption of this emergent manufacturing technology. Micro-milling processes are inherently limited by low productivity as a result of the low material removal rates achieved with micro-scale tools. In micro-machining, precision requirements are more demanding and new approaches for high-speed, high-precision micro-machining are required.
The impact of scale-effects in high-speed, high-precision micro-milling will be discussed, specifically highlighting the increased importance of the trajectory generation time in the control of high-speed, high-precision machining. Additionally, two novel tool-path segmentation techniques, curvature-based segmentation and stability-based segmentation, will be introduced. These intelligent segmentation techniques take advantage of selective interpolation strategies in order to boost productivity in areas of high curvature and/or regions of unstable cutting mechanics that can occur at the micro-scale as a result of the low tool stiffness and pronounced tool edge-radius effects.
In conclusion, the application space for micro/meso-scale machining processes in the areas of meso-scale energy systems and advanced micro-channel heat exchanger development will be considered and finally, an outlook towards multi-scale machining processes will be discussed as an opportunity for continued improvement in high-speed, high-precision meso-scale machining.
About the Speaker
J. Rhett Mayor is Assistant Professor in The George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. He obtained his PhD in 2002 in mechanical engineering from the University of Natal, Durban, South Africa. He holds the BScEng cum laude and MScEng cum laude in mechanical engineering from the same institution. Prior to joining Georgia Tech, Dr. Mayor was President and CEO of Powerix Technologies, LLC, and previously a research scientist with the S.M.Wu Manufacturing Research Center, University of Michigan. Dr. Mayor’s primary research interests are in the emerging areas of micro-manufacturing and micro-power generation. His work in micro-manufacturing addresses the phenomenological understanding of micro-machining operations, the control of process dynamics using sensor-less instability detection and compensation algorithm, and the development of high-speed tool-path generation algorithms. Dr. Mayor has published over 40 papers in archival journals and peer-reviewed conferences, and has five pending patents. He is a member of the ASME, SME and SAE.
