Dynamic manufacturing of thin-walled work pieces by milling process

Lightweight components are gaining in importance in EU key industries with good market growth potential (aerospace, automotive, power generation, medical technology etc.). To achieve weight reductions, complex thin-walled structures are combined with high strength materials. However, the lower stiffness of work pieces leads to severe challenges during the milling process: - Difficulty to achieve high work piece quality, due to vibration and process forces, in industries that have very high safety and quality requirements (aviation, space etc.). Therefore, in many cases manual finishing of the work pieces is required. - Achievement of acceptable work piece quality only through time and resource consuming trial and error identification of process parameters that circumvent critical process states. This often results in slow and inefficient processes. To overcome these problems, DynaMill aims at achieving the complete control over the milling process of thin-walled work pieces. This will be realised through a threefold approach combining the development of process planning, adaptive clamping devices and improved cutting conditions. Subsequently, these three developments will be integrated in the DynaMill Technology as a platform. Throughout the project demonstration of intermediate and integrated solutions will play an important role. The concrete impacts for industry include: - 30% reduction of production time and costs - 80% increase in process stability - 30% reduction of power, compressed air and coolants - 60% reduction of process set-up time and 70% reduction of wasted raw materials during set-up - 20% improvement of tool life - Elimination of finishing operations As a result the competiveness of European industry will be enhanced significantly. For the project, a strong consortium consisting of two research institutes, four manufacturers of key technologies (CAM software, machine tools, clamping devices and tools) and four end users has been gathered.