University's Engineering Control researchers invited to join majo
Thu, 23 Jun 2011 15:10:00 BST
When leading European firms and research establishments need expert partners to lay the foundations for a major project in the field of precision engineering, they call the University of Huddersfield first.
The Engineering Control and Machine Performance Group (ECMPG), which is part of the University’s globally-renowned Centre for Precision Technologies, has just had its pre-eminence confirmed. The group, led by Alan Myers, was specifically approached by a consortium of 11 organisations to join a new project funded by a European programme known as Framework 7. The aim of the research is to achieve massive improvements in machine tool accuracy, bringing vast benefits to firms and their customers.
Not only was Huddersfield’s ECMPG actively sought as a partner in the project, but it was put in charge of the vital first stage – known as a work package – of the scheme. The choice was made unanimously at the first meeting of the consortium, whose members include the major Italian engineering firm Alesamonti, the University of Southern Switzerland and the Italian National Measurement Institute.
Alan Myers explains that his Huddersfield team’s task to develop the concept behind the project, which aims to bring about an average improvement of greater than 75 per cent in the accuracy of machine tools.
Virtually every machine tool, he explains, suffers from errors caused by a variety of factors. Among the categories are geometric errors, dynamic errors, thermal errors and load errors.
The consortium’s aim is to eliminate these, as far as possible, by developing an inertial frame that that sits within the structure of the machine tool. “It will ensure that the relationship between the spindle and the work piece remains as intended, even when the structure becomes loaded with cutting forces and the geometry of the structure causes inaccuracies,” explains Alan Myers.
Exactly what form this frame will take is the concept that he and three other members of the ECMPG will now begin to work on, funded by Framework 7 to the tune of 390,000 Euros (£347,000). Among the possibilities, says Alan Myers, are a framework constructed from carbon fibre – very stable, with an extremely low rate of thermal expansion – which would be embedded into a machine tool. But perhaps more likely is that the frame will, in fact, consist of laser beams guided by sensors.
The ground-laying first work package will last for ten months and the facilities at Huddersfield’s CPT will be used for testing whatever concept is developed. The overall project is scheduled to last for three years and when its goals are achieved there is the potential for almost all machine tools to operate at a much higher level of accuracy. This will mean faster, more efficient production of parts and a massive reduction in the amount of waste material as fewer faulty parts have to be scrapped.
The latest project is an addition to an existing Framework 7 project – which involves the development of computer software to improve machine tool accuracy – that the ECMPG is currently working on. The two Framework 7 grants combined are worth 740,000 Euros (£658,000) to the University of Huddersfield.
More information on Alan and the ECMPG can be found at the following web-sites:
