SBIR Phase I: Simulation-Based Design Tool for Machining

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will investigate the viability of a design-focused approach to modeling and simulation that will create a unique machining software model applicable to machine shops and manufacturing facilities of all sizes. No such tool currently exists or is pending. U.S. shops are continually losing business to foreign sources because of price. They need a dynamic software tool to help them rapidly and confidently determine lowest cost machining conditions. This project will focus on one cutter/material system and for extending the science to other cutters, materials, and machining systems. The software will predict cutting tool wear for each particular cutter/material pair based upon the iterative interactions of over eight different wear phenomena including temperature, force, rigidity and friction. It will account for differing part designs, run quickly on a personal computer, and will accurately compute the highly non-linear wear characteristics of a cutting tool during its wear history from a new tool with a sharp edge to a tool that has reached its wear limit The potential commercial benefits will be the ability to predict cutting tool wear and relating it to cost and quality for difficult-to-machine alloys.