Cryogenic Machining Systems (CRYOSIS)

The machining of high performance materials is continuing to grow in the UK, particularly as a result of the increase in the high value manufacturing sectors, which include aerospace and medical industries. The aerospace market alone is worth £23billion. The major issues at present are the inherent problems of machining materials such as titanium alloys, which are extensively used in the aerospace sector. Typically, Airbus use in excess of 250 tonnes of titanium to produce components for the A380. In fact, at present the major bottleneck for the aerospace industry is the machine shop, which cannot produce components quickly enough, because of the difficulty of machining such materials. CRYOSIS will develop novel machining solutions and strategies, based on solid scientific foundations allowing for these types of materials to be machined faster and with reduced surface roughness, increased tool life and enhanced machinability, whilst also providing significantly reduced environmental impacts.

Specifically, the project will investigate and develop cryogenic solutions for the next generation of machining of high performance materials, particularly for finish machining of near-net shapes. Machining of such materials presents a number of inherent challenges, which are at present not addressed as identified by the industrial partners. Using a cryogen in place of conventional coolants will allow for the heat generated at the cutting interface to be dissipated faster, leading to increased tool life and reduced surface roughness. In addition, it is envisaged that material removal rates can be increased by reducing rough machining stages, leading to positive impacts on component throughput.

If acceptable machining characteristics can be obtained using the CRYOSIS process, the machining of high performance materials, particularly for the finish machining of near net shapes will create a revolutionary change in manufacturing performance, cost and provide a viable enhancement to the present state of the art. In addition, the design of a retrofittable cryogen delivery solution for a wide range of available machine tools provides a direct cost based impetus for improving machining of such materials, which at present does not exist.

1. Engineering manufacturing and wealth creation
The project will impact Renishaw directly by allowing it to exploit developed retrofit technology in the machine tool, aerospace machining, and medical machining markets, maintaining UK design and manufacturing skills and jobs. Renishaw are world leaders in retrofitting inspection technology particularly for the machine tool market and so have
extensive links with a large number of machine tool vendors. In addition Renishaw are also a major player in the dental restoration market and this technology will help them to continue to be the industry leaders. This ambitious project will secure this leading position for decades to come and is timely as the use of high performance materials is continually increasing.
Airbus is the world's leading aircraft manufacture with an estimated order book of 42 aircraft a month. A major proportion of their aircrafts are manufactured from titanium alloys. CRYOSIS provides an application for enhanced machining of near-net
titanium forgings, allowing for increased production throughput, directly impacting on the number of aircraft manufactured per month. In addition it is expected that the cost of quality will reduce and that secondary factors such as tool life will increase.
The use of a low cost retrofit cryogenic solution for finish machining of near-net high performance metal alloy components and structures brings a distinctly scientific method into mainstream manufacturing. Incidentally the Government Office of Science's 2011 Foresight Horizon Report on "Technology and Innovation Futures: UK Growth Opportunities for the 2020's" highlights that new novel technology approaches is the key change that will transform UK manufacturing into a 21 century lead.

2. Aerospace industry
The UK Aerospace Technology Strategy Group expects $3 trillion of civil aircraft to be sold in the next 20 years and estimates that the UK has the second largest aerospace industry in the World (£23billion turnover in 2010). CRYOSIS will be introduced within Airbus to directly impact on the key bottleneck of current production capabilities, which are primarily linked to titanium machining. It will contribute to reducing machining time, by in some cases, directly finishing of forged and or cast parts, reduce surface roughness and increase tool life. It will also change the dynamics of machining such
materials, and will also remove the need for conventional coolants.

3. Medical Industries
The UK medical engineering sector is worth $10billion annually and is continuing to increase. The CRYOSIS process will be introduced within Renishaw to improve the machinability of direct metal laser sintered cobalt chrome dental bridges and restorations. In addition to this direct process improvement, it is also envisaged that the technology can be applied to othermedical sectors such as finish machining of maxillofacial structures.

4. Environment
The eradication of traditional coolants from machining processes will be a direct positive consequence of CRYOSIS adoption. As a result it is also expected that the total energy used in machining high performance metal alloys will also reduce, as the vast majority of the machine tools energy used is for the operation of the coolant pump. Secondary
environmental factors will also result from increasing tool life.

5. Investigators and Researchers
The investigators and researchers will benefit from the experience of applying their research skills in a development project with the partners who are highly skilled in their own particular fields. This synergy will lead to patented co-inventions and to
novel results and co-authored publications. The Research Fellow will benefit from the experience of working in an industrial environment, which will be significantly valuable to their future careers either in industry or academia. The project is also likely to highlight research areas for future investigations both nationally an internationally.