Machining of Ceramics

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HockenEEC-9903838This project is funded as a part of the EEC initiative on Research Centers - Small Firms Collaborative R&D. The cooperating partners are the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNC) - Center for Precision Metrology, and Third Wave Systems, Inc., a small firm headquartered in Minneapolis, MN that provides simulation technology for the metal processing industry. The Center and the small firm will jointly develop the science and technology base to machine and model the cutting of ceramic materials. These results will be useful to help manufacturers produce ceramic components for their products. The Center will contribute its expertise in the areas of precision machining and metrology, materials characterization, and finite element analysis. Third Wave will provide the Center with its software for this project and provide training as part of their in-kind contribution to the project. Third Wave has extensive experience with modeling metal cutting operations. However, Third Wave does not have experience with modeling the machining of ceramics such as silicon nitride. The collaborative R&D will afford Third Wave the opportunity to be directly involved in the research effort to develop a machining simulation package for ceramic workpieces such as silicon nitride. The work is an outgrowth of over two years of discussion between UNC and Third Wave to establish a joint collaborative effort. The interest has always been and continues to be very high, but the hurdles from both the small firm and the university have been sufficiently high to prevent any progress. The usual problems such as lack of financial resources and personnel availability have kept us from realizing any advances towards a viable research program. Two of the Center's affiliates, Caterpillar and Cummins, have expressed an interest in the modeling of ceramic machining. Both companies have contributed to the Center's ceramic machining project.