High Resolution Thermal Measurement for Advanced Manufacturing Research

在加拿大，大约30%的金属产品制造活动是金属去除（机械加工），除了少数例外，从地球上提取的所有东西都被加工成加拿大经济各个部门的制成品，直接或间接地需要机械加工。在可预见的未来，机械加工是并将继续是制造业最重要的基石之一。******我们在麦克马斯特制造研究所（MMRI）的团队，由Stephen Veldhuis博士领导，在先进制造研究方面有着广泛的历史，特别关注机械加工。从本质上讲，机械加工研究是高度应用的基础，并导致了MMRI和工业之间非常牢固的合作伙伴关系，确保MMRI的研究重点致力于开发知识，技术和技术，为工业带来有价值的解决方案。******在钛和铬镍铁合金等难以加工的材料中，毫米尺寸的“切割区”承受超过2 GPa的局部压力和超过1000ºC的温度，导致严重的化学和物理磨损现象。解决这些苛刻的条件需要表征和理解材料和工具之间发生的相互作用的能力。******在MMRI的金属切削研究领域，由于加工过程的原位表征极其困难，过去的大部分工作都是在刀具磨损后进行的。凭借在该领域20多年的经验，MMRI一直致力于建立一个实验装置，使原位表征成为可能。实验装置已得到验证，目前正在使用高速视频收集重要数据，以前所未有的方式描述切削工具上毫米大小的“切削区”。******据我们所知，MMRI是世界上第一个以这种方式表征金属原位切削的研究小组，但我们目前缺乏一种可靠的原位测量温度的方法。为了成为世界上第一个在这个方向上发表新结果的人，我们迫切需要一种热成像系统，这是我们应用中测量温度的唯一可行方法。******在工业中，金属切削刀具的性能极大地影响着加工过程的生产率、质量和成本。这些工具的磨损和性能取决于切削区的温度和压力，从而导致化学和物理磨损。工程工具的切割速度更快，使用寿命更长，需要详细了解化学和物理磨损机制，这是非常复杂的，由于直接观察这些机制非常困难，仍然没有完全理解。热成像系统将使MMRI的50多名研究人员大大提高我们在研究实验中测量温度的能力，并更好地了解物理和化学磨损的基本驱动因素。

Approximately 30% of all metal product manufacturing activity in Canada is metal removal (machining) and, with few exceptions, everything extracted from the earth and processed into manufactured products across every sector of Canada's economy requires machining, either directly or indirectly. Machining is and will continue to be one of the most important cornerstones of manufacturing for the foreseeable future.******Our team at the McMaster Manufacturing Research Institute (MMRI), led by Dr. Stephen Veldhuis, have an extensive history in advanced manufacturing research with a specific focus in machining. By nature, machining research is highly applications based and has led to very strong partnerships between the MMRI and industry, ensuring MMRI research thrusts are working towards developing knowledge, techniques and technologies that lead to valuable solutions for industry.******In difficult to machine materials like titanium and Inconel, the millimetre sized “cutting zone” is subjected to local pressures exceeding 2 GPa and temperatures exceeding 1000ºC, resulting in severe chemical and physical wear phenomena. Addressing these demanding conditions requires the ability to characterize and understand the interactions occurring between the material and tool.******In the MMRI's field of metal cutting research, the majority of past work has been done on tools after they are worn out due to the extreme difficulty of in-situ characterization of machining processes. Drawing on over 20 years of experience in this field, the MMRI has been working on an experimental setup which makes in-situ characterization possible. The experimental setup has been proven and important data is now being collected using high-speed video to characterize the millimetre sized “cutting zone” on cutting tools in a way never done before.******To the best of our knowledge, the MMRI is the first research group in the world to characterize metal cutting in-situ in this way but we currently lack a robust method to measure temperatures in-situ. To be the first in the world to publish novel results in this direction, we are in critical need of a thermal imaging system which is the only feasible way to measure temperatures in our application.******In industry, the productivity, quality and cost of machining processes is greatly impacted by the performance of metal cutting tools. Wear and performance of these tools is governed by the temperatures and pressures in the cutting zone, leading to chemical and physical wear. Engineering tools to cut faster and last long requires a detailed understanding of the chemical and physical wear mechanisms, which are highly complex and still not fully understood due to the extreme difficulty of observing these mechanisms directly. A thermal imaging system will allow the MMRI's over 50 research personnel to greatly improve our ability in research experiments to measure temperature and better understand the fundamental drivers of physical and chemical wear.