Research group measures up to the best in Europe
Mon, 27 Jun 2011 15:38:00 BST
Experts at the University of Huddersfield’s Centre for Precision Technologies (CPT) have confirmed their place at the heart of innovative research designed to ensure that Europe leads the world in advanced machine tools capable of astonishing accuracy.
The CPT’s Engineering Control and Machine Performance Research Group (ECMPG) has landed a succession of grants under the European Commission’s FP7 programme, which has the avowed aim to make Europe’s knowledge-based economy the most dynamic in the world.
So far the ECMPG has been awarded more than one million Euros to contribute to research that will produce massive gains in machine tool accuracy. The latest grant, named HARCO, is a three-year project worth 338,000 Euros.
Senior Research Fellow and CNC accuracy specialist Dr Andrew Longstaff will be in day-to-day charge of the project, which will develop smart actuators that can be fitted to machine tools and enable them to eliminate all but the most minute errors when producing components. The margin of accuracy aimed at is up to half a micron – a micron is a millionth of a metre – which will constitute “incredible performance”.
The technology that emerges – the result of developments in both hardware and software – will consist of modules that can be incorporated into new machines or retro-fitted to existing ones.
The ECMPG at Huddersfield is one of a group of leading European firms and universities working on different aspects of the project. One participant, for example, is Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute, the largest research organisation in Europe. All of the research partners will contribute special areas of expertise.
The latest FP7-funded project will see the Huddersfield team of up to six researchers concentrating on methods of controlling various modules that will be fitted to machine tools in pursuit of greater accuracy.
“The other two FP7-funded projects are well underway, “says Andrew. “The first project, named ADAMOD, which I am managing, is into its final year while the second project, SOMMACT, is being technically managed by my colleague Dr Simon Fletcher and this has just begun its second year. These projects are drawing on the extensive metrology expertise of the CPT.”
In addition to European Commission projects, the ECMPG has forged partnerships with many leading UK firms and there are new collaborations in the pipeline.
