Collaborative Research: Micro/Meso-Scale Machine Tool Systems

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This collaborative research project is directed towards a new technology for the production of micro/meso-scale components by methods whose efficiency approaches that of mass production. Key to achieving this capability will be the creation of "miniaturized" machine tool systems (referred to as meso-Machine Tools, mMTs) whose volume is on the order of 1 dm3. These systems are required to meet the rapidly growing demand for 3D parts and part features at the micro/meso-level (0.01 - 10.00 mm range) in materials that include stainless steel, titanium, aluminum, platinum, iridium and others is currently being met by using ultra-precision CNC machine tools. It is common to have machine-to-workpiece volume ratios of 106 or higher at best, a situation that adversely affects accuracy, precision and overall efficiency. The prevalent microelectronic fabrication techniques and their spin-offs used for micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) are, in turn, are limited by their inability to produce arbitrary 3D features in a wide range of materials and by their limited relative accuracy. However, to their advantage, MEMS-based technologies are batch type, leading to cheap mass production, while ultra-precision CNC processes are serial, inherently expensive and not easily adaptable to mass production.The goal is to meet productivity requirements by applying these mMT in a massively parallel fashion. It is envisioned that the mMTs, in analogy to a computer system, will be equivalent to plug-and-play boards and treated as replaceable entities. To facilitate an integration of such machines into a system, resource and information distribution mechanisms will be established by an architecture, similar in concept to the "bus" of a computer, that supplies energy, control/feedback information, and materials and tools to/from the individual machines. It is anticipated that the project will demonstrate that it is possible to build mMT systems for costs two or three orders of magnitude below existing systems.