Guangming Zhang, Ph.D. - US grants

Decisions made during the design of a machined part can significantly affect the product's cost, quality, and lead time. Thus, it is important to evaluate the machinability of the design, providing feedback so that the designer can change the design to improve its machinability. For machining purposes, a part is often considered to be a collection of machinable features. However, often there can be several different interpretations of the same part as different collections of machinable features. Each interpretation corresponds to a different set of machining operations, in a different order, with different machinability. To determine the machinability of the part, all of these alternatives should be generated and their machinability evaluated. This research will develop ways to do this automatically. For generating the alternative feature interpretations, the investigator's will use an algebraic approach, in which new interpretations will be produced via algebraic operations on old interpretations. For evaluating the machinability of each feature, the researchers will take into account the feature geometry, tolerance requirements, surface finish requirements, and statistical variations in the process capabilities. The information provided by such an analysis can be used in several ways: (1) To provide information to the manufacturing engineer about alternative ways in which the part might be machined. This information can be useful in developing process planning alternatives depending on machine tool availability. (2) To provide feedback to the designer identifying problems that may arise with the machining. By comparing the best achievable tolerances with the designer's tolerance requirements, investigator's should be able to suggest small changes in the design that will significantly improve the machinability.

9354956 Russell Maryland has had a long standing commitment to machine tool research. The Advanced Design and Manufacturing Laboratory, the Computer-aided Design Laboratory, and the Photomechanics Laboratory are among the leading laboratories in the nation. On-going research activities include study of machine tool dynamics, ceramic machining, synthesis and processing of multi-layer ceramic actuators, and development of optical fiber sensor technology. University of Maryland's strong collaboration with industry and government research institutions provides a unique research environment for GRT. A combined training and retention strategy that emphasizes the integration of design throughout the engineering curriculum at the graduate level has been developed for this proposal. Developing a cluster of academic courses relevant to machine tool research allows graduate students to integrate ideas and concepts from the designated courses, and encourages intellectual and social camaraderie to knit the trainees together. The training focuses on engineering practice and quality research. Starting from learning operational skills to large-scale system analysis, they gain leading-edge knowledge. Exciting research projects and strong interactions among students and with teachers will encourage students to stay in the program to pursue their Ph.D. degrees. ***