UNC Charlotte researchers awarded national award for industrial innovation

A research team of engineers from the US Department of Energy's Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte has won a coveted 2010 "R&D 100 Award" from R&D Magazine.

The innovation award, which is given annually "to recognize the 100 most technologically significant new products of the year," was for the development of a sophisticated new method that eliminates the formation of long, dangerous strips of metal ("chips") in the process of machining ductile materials. The invention titled "Modulated Tool-Path (MTP) Chip Breaking System", uses precisely controlled CNC oscillating tool paths to make the chips short and manageable. This invention is unique in that it produces user-selectable chip lengths and workpiece finishes and it is not limited to certain cutting conditions, materials, or workpiece geometries.

The team included William E. Barkman and Edwin F. Babelay, Jr. from Y-12 and K. Scott Smith, Thomas S. Assaid, Justin T. McFarland, and David A Tursky from UNC Charlotte, and former UNC Charlotte students Bethany Woody (now at InsituTec) and David Adams (now at Moore Nanotechnology Systems).

Smith, who headed the university-based group and is professor and chair in UNC Charlotte's Department of Mechanical Engineering, noted that ductile metals "have a tendency to make long stringy chips, which tangle up and often make a big 'bird's nest.' These tangled chips can damage the workpiece or cause operator injury. Worse, the heat of the cutting can be sufficient to make pyrophoric chips (like magnesium) catch on fire. In traditional operations, manufacturers often have to have someone standing by the machine all the time pulling the chips away from the cutting zone."

Manual removal of the chips is a dangerous process, Smith notes, so the innovation is likely to prevent numerous injuries. The method allows for greatly improved control of chip size and does not require the manufacturer to install any new equipment. The procedure will also have a significant impact on costs in metal manufacturing.

"We have also shown that the same strategy can be used to control the tool temperature, which is strongly related to the tool wear, and tool wear is a big driver for difficult-to-machine materials including titanium, stainless steel, and nickel alloys," Smith said. "For this reason, the technology has applications in power turbines and jet engines, for example."

Provided by University of North Carolina at Charlotte