A micro-scale machine tool testbed for micro-machining

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As a starting faculty member, I plan to establish a research program on advanced multi-scale manufacturing to develop innovative manufacturing technologies to bridge the gap between nano- and micro-scales, and support the increasing demand for customized miniature 3D parts. The innovative multi-scale manufacturing technologies developed through this program will allow integration of nano-scale devices into practical engineering systems. My initial efforts will be on miniaturization of manufacturing processes and systems that can lead to cost-effective, accurate, flexible, and mobile manufacturing so that 3D miniature custom-design parts can be quickly made at a remote location where they are needed or required. The proposed micro-scale machine tool testbed for micro-machining will be a prototype that will enable miniaturization of manufacturing processes and systems. It will be a desk-top testbed with the work volume of 50x50x50 mm3 and the overall dimension of 400x400x400 mm3. Different miniaturized manufacturing processes, e.g., micro-milling, micro-edm, micro-ecm, micro-scratching, etc, will be developed and performed on this testbed.Initially, the testbed will serve two purposes in line with the proposed projects in the Discovery grant application this year: (1) it will facilitate micro-milling experiments with application of atomized cutting fluids to be conducted with measurement of cutting forces in order to understand the process mechanisms and the effect of atomized cutting fluids on cutting performance as the process is miniaturized and (2) it will help us identify a number of design issues on miniaturization for machine tools to develop a micro-scale machine tool (mMT). As the size-scale of the process and equipment is reduced, many new issues arise and remain to be addressed for fully functional and versatile mMTs including cutting fluid application, part handling, assembly, fixturing, metrology, mMT calibration, on-line monitoring and control, etc. The testbed will also be used when addressing some of these issues.