Innovating machining and machine tools through design, process optimization, and controls
Machine tools are essential in the production of many items we encounter on a daily basis. Their precision, efficiency, and versatility make them vital to industries that significantly impact our lives. From creating injection molding tooling for everyday plastics to manufacturing precision components for the automotive, aerospace, and energy sectors, machine tools are indispensable in modern manufacturing.
Machining research at MDF is focused on making the existing machining and machine tool industry more flexible, efficient, and competitive through new simulation, metrology, and control capabilities while also creating the next generation of machine tools. Advanced machining research is a multidisciplinary effort aimed at improving all aspects of manufacturing technology and, at MDF, has become an enabling technology for many of the additive and hybrid manufacturing research areas.
Developing Alternatives for Castings and Forgings
Castings are a critical component in the creation of nearly all production machinery. Over the past several decades, castings have increasingly moved overseas, resulting in a 50 percent decline in US casting infrastructure and facilities. MDF teams are investigating concrete as a potential alternative to traditional machine tool base materials, as it has comparable stiffness and improved damping.
Cost Savings for American Machine Shops
In 2020, ORNL and MSC Industrial Supply developed MillMax, a technology for CNC milling machines that allows increased productivity through dynamic measurements of the cutting system and optimal process parameter selection to reduce time, cost, and scrap rates. A key phase of this project was in the workforce training of MSC metalworking specialists to perform and understand these measurements.
The technology won an R&D100 Award and has been distributed by MSC to machine shops across the nation, with impactful results. The technology has provided average savings per company of more than $18,900 per successful measurement/test, and improved energy savings through a reduction in machining time by more than 140,000 hours. Since October 2020, the project has demonstrated an 83:1 return on investment (and climbing) and has eclipsed $20M in profit improvement for American metalworkers nationwide.
Highlights
Revitalizing US Manufacturing
In partnership with UT and IACMI—The Composites Institute, ORNL provides expertise for America’s Cutting Edge (ACE), a national CNC machine training program supported by DOD and DOE. The program is helping reestablish American leadership in the machine tool industry and has trained more than 10,000 students from all 50 states.
Small Machine; Big Impact
The MDF-developed “Concrete Base Machine” is a platform capable of rapidly and cost effectively producing domestic machine tools. The machine, which went from design to demonstration in 3 months, uses a pass-through design and is comprised of 7,000 psi reinforced concrete with rebar reinforcement and sensors embedded. A demonstration showed the machine capable of printing a carbon-fiber reinforced ABS mold in just 30 hours.
Get in touch
Scott Smith
Section Head
Precision Manufacturing & Machining
Christopher Tyler
Group Leader
Advanced Machining and Machine Tool Research