Development of Innovative Instrumentation and Modelling for 21st Century CNC Machining

CNC manufacturing is ubiquitous, with the market for machines approaching $100 billion. With 21st century manufacturing materials comes new problems and the need for us to invent the future of sensors and measurements in these processes. This is an unfilled gap in research that we aim to fill with our exciting, well-funded EngD programme. Processing parameters significantly affect the properties of finished components. Equipment for in-process measurement of cutting forces has reached a high level of maturity, which has led to a greater understanding of what is occurring at the tool chip interface. However, this has exposed a fundamental lack of understanding regarding temperature profiles within both the cutting tool and the workpiece. Users are currently experiencing unexplained machining problems and we need to find out why. For example, when they try to remove heavy metals from their alloys. This situation becomes worse for the new alloys we are developing, e.g., for the aerospace industry. Temperature measurement of tools and machining surfaces is of great interest because of the heat concentrated in the small contact zone. This accelerates tool wear and leads to many problems, including work surface integrity. The AMRC has considerable experience in turning applications, embedding thermocouples in tools and work pieces and comparing measurements with thermal cameras. Useful results have been achieved; however, thermocouple measurements are far too slow. We have also found some infrared wavelengths where one type of coolant is transparent; in principal, this should provide a route to imaging temperature through these fluids. There is no current solution for the more difficult milling applications, where embedding thermocouples is not possible, camera frame rate must be very high and many other constraints, such as ballistic chips and swarf, complicate the thermal image.

We have devised an exciting new collaborative EngD project that will lead to solving these important problems through a combination of novel in-process optical instrumentation and a deep understanding of the underlying metallurgy. You will be supported through high-quality cohort training in metallurgy from our CDT and an electronic engineering research group currently consisting of five PhD students, four PDRAs and one technician. This will training make you highly attractive to future employers. Your project follows from a recent feasibility study, see: Heeley et. al., 2018 https://doi.org/10.3390/s18103188. Providing solutions will be of great interest to manufacturers and many AMRC partners; including Rolls Royce, BAE and Boeing. This project is supervised by Dr Jon Willmott in the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at the University of Sheffield, and by Dr Sabino Ayvar-Soberanis at the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) in Sheffield. You will also work closely with the Advanced Forming Research Centre (AFRC) in Strathclyde and industrial collaborators. It is expected that you will, therefore, spend time at the University of Sheffield and the AMRC, and other collaborators as required.

The EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Advanced Metallic Systems was established to address the metallurgical skills
gap, highlighted in several reports [1-3] as a threat to the competitiveness of UK industry, by training non-materials
graduates from chemistry, physics and engineering in a multidisciplinary environment. Although we will have supplied ~140
highly capable metallurgical scientists and engineers into industry and academia by the end of our existing programme,
there remains a demonstrable need for doctoral-level training to continue and evolve to meet future industry needs. We
therefore propose to train a further 14 UK based PhD and EngD students per cohort as well as 5 Irish students per
cohort through I-Form.

Manufacturing contributes over 10% of UK GVA with the metals sector contributing 12% of this (£10.7BN [4,5]) and
employing ~230,000 people directly and 750,000 indirectly. It is estimated that ~2300 graduates are required annually to
meet present and future growth [5]. A sizeable portion of these graduates will require metallurgical expertise and current
numbers fall far short. From UK-wide HESA data, we estimate there are ~330 home UG/PGT qualifiers in materials and
~35 home doctoral graduates in metallurgy annually, including existing AMSCDT graduates, so it is unsurprising that
industry continues to report difficulties in recruiting staff with the required specialist metallurgical knowledge and
professional competencies.

As well as addressing this shortfall, the CDT will also impact directly on the companies with which it collaborates, on the
wider high value manufacturing sector and on the UK economy as a whole, as follows:

1. Collaborating companies, across a wide range of businesses in the supply chain including SMEs and research
organisations will benefit directly from the CDT through:

- Targeted projects in direct support of their business and its future development and competitiveness.
- Access to the expertise and facilities of the host institutions.
- Involvement in the training of the next generation of potential employees with advanced technical and leadership skills
who can add value to their organisations.

2. The UK High-Value Manufacturing Community will benefit as the CDT will:

- Develop the underpinning science and advanced-level knowledge base required by future high technology areas, where
there is high expectation of gross added value.
- Provide an enhanced route to exploitation, by covering the full spectrum of technology readiness levels.
- Ensure dissemination of knowledge to the sector, through student-led SME consultancy projects, the National Student
Conference in Metallic Materials and industry events.

3. The wider UK economy will benefit as the CDT will:

- Promote materials science and engineering and encourage future generations to enter the field, through outreach
activities developed by the students that will increase public awareness of the discipline and its contribution to modern
life, and highlight its importance to future innovation and technologies.
- Develop and exploit new technologies and products which will help to maintain a competitive UK advanced
manufacturing sector, ensure an internationally competitive and balanced UK economy for future generations and
contribute to technical challenges in key societal issues such as energy and sustainability.

References:
1. Materials UK Structural Materials Report 2009
2. EPSRC Materials International Review 2008
3. EPSRC Materially Better Call 2013
4. The state of engineering, Engineering UK 2017
5. Vision 2030: The UK Metals Industry's New Strategic Approach, Metals Forum