SPP 1476:  Small Machine Tools for Small Work Pieces

• Subject Area: Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
• Term: from 2010 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 130334929

Increased miniaturisation, functional integration and an increase in complexity are absolutely essential for the workpieces of numerous industries in order to facilitate the manufacture of more innovative products and thus achieve economic success. Such industries include medical engineering, optics, biotechnology, mechatronics, fluidics, micromoulding and tool design and reactor technology, but also new sectors such as protection against forgery. Current research activities are primarily directed towards the scaling down of manufacturing processes and the formation of complex process chains for the manufacture of micro workpieces.
However, there is an intensive demand for research in order to qualify the machine tools needed to fulfil the new requirements. This need for development can be deduced by considering simple parameters, such as installation space, the size of the workspace, the energy needed for operation or the moving masses in the machine tools, which exhibit a dramatic disparity in relation to the volume or mass of the workpieces measuring only a few millimetres and their corresponding structures in the micrometre range.
The aim of this Priority Programme is to make scientifically-based methods available and to conduct trials on the resulting prototypes. Therefore, novel machine tools will be developed and built, which are adapted to the micro workpieces to be manufactured in terms of their installation space and workspace. The Priority Programme will concentrate on machine tools for abrasive processes that use mechanical, thermal, electrothermal and electrochemical energy. Technical benefits lie in the potential to produce more complex workpieces with higher accuracy from a large range of materials. An additional feature of small machines is that they are inherently more changeable in terms of structure and installation site.
In order to solve this problem, a scientific approach is to be applied that commences with the analysis and dissection of how elements and functions are allocated in present-day ultra-precision machine tools machines. Modification of these machines in combination with a selection of technology enablers, such as miniaturisation, and basic technologies will allow for new modules to be synthesised that integrate the required functions. A final complexity phase is intended to create machine tools that can be integrated and removed from the modules in question on an ad hoc and task-oriented basis.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes

Projects

• Aktive Parallelkinemtatik zur Realisierung einer Verfahreinheit für kleine Werkzeugmaschinen (Applicant Seemann, Wolfgang )
• Compact machine modules for micro machining (Applicant Denkena, Berend )
• Compact Uni- and Multiaxial Electrodynamic Feed Units for Small Machine Tools (Applicant Lienig, Jens )
• Control of the laser induced temperature field for the ralisation of a compact machining module for planar laser material processing (Applicant Vollertsen, Frank )
• Coordination Funds (Applicant Wulfsberg, Jens P. )
• Entwicklung eines multifunktionalen Antriebsmoduls zur Realisierung von Zustellbewegungen in Maschinen der Mikrofertigung (Applicant Neugebauer, Reimund )
• Function- and principle-hybrid interfaces for quickly reconfiguring small modular machine tools to be utilized by a collective of users (Applicant Wulfsberg, Jens P. )
• GrindBall - Novel drive and bearing concept for micro grinding tools (Applicants Brinksmeier, Ekkard ;  Groll, Rodion ;  Orlik, Bernd )
• Highly integrated hydraulic active feed unit for micro manufacturing with favorable ratio of build and work space (Applicant Fleischer, Jürgen )
• Mathematische Optimierungsstrategien bei der Kinematik und dem Design neuartiger Werkzeugmaschinen für die Mikrofertigung (Applicant Schuster, Thomas )
• Millimeterwave radar sensor for high accuracy position measurement in small machine tools (Applicants Pohl, Nils ;  Zwick, Thomas )
• Modul for Micro Electrical Discharge Machining using Gaseous Dielectric Media (Applicant Uhlmann, Eckart )
• Modular desktop machining center with shape memory actuation (Applicant Kuhlenkötter, Bernd )
• Modular structured reconfigurable machines for micro processing with cooperative motion generation (Applicants Hoffmeister, Hans-Werner ;  Verl, Alexander )
• Process Oriented Configuration of Small Machine Tools for Micro Milling (Applicant Drossel, Welf-Guntram )
• Prozessgerechte Auslegung von funktionsintegrierten Vorschubeinheiten auf der Grundlage von nachgiebigen Mechanismen (Applicant Lammering, Rolf )
• Qualification of function integrated feed units on the basis of compliant mechanisms in small machine tools for small work pieces (Applicants Lammering, Rolf ;  Schuster, Thomas ;  Wulfsberg, Jens P. )
• Tool Spindle with replaceable rotormodules (Applicant Aurich, Jan C. )
• Werkzeugspindel mit auswechselbaren Rotomodulen (Applicant Aurich, Jan C. )

• Spokesperson: Professor Dr.-Ing. Jens P. Wulfsberg