Nottingham engineers develop 'self-learning' jet milling control system

Technology could transform manufacture of complex aerospace, optical and biomedical devices

A high-precision water-jet milling control system, which could transform the manufacture of complex aerospace, optical and biomedical structures and devices, is being developed by a team of engineers led by the The University of Nottingham.

The technology uses a jet of water up to 1mm in diameter, which is released under pressure at as much as three times the speed of sound. With the addition of abrasive particles, this high velocity jet is able to cut even the hardest material into the most complex shapes.

The ‘self-learning’ controlled-depth milling technique can be programmed to work with high accuracy, and without human intervention, on the surface of 3D, geometric, multi-gradient surfaces.

The engineering team at Nottingham is part of the international ConforM²-Jet project. The project's team of engineers and mathematicians is working closely with leading companies in the aerospace, medical and optical lens industries to develop the jet milling technology.

Professor Dragos Axinte, coordinator of the project, said: “If you want to generate surfaces in difficult-to-cut or heat-sensitive materials while exerting minimal specific forces abrasive water jet milling will do the job. For this technology the research team of ConforM²-Jet project developed a precision technique to generate even the most complex multi-gradient surfaces with high accuracy.

“The accuracy of the self-learning control system is due to a set of original mathematical models of the material removal and process monitoring techniques to allow corrections of the system as milling is taking place. These unique systems combine to ensure that complex milling of difficult-to-cut materials can be carried out with high accuracy.”

Axinte said that the ConforM²-Jet project would lead to the development and demonstration of the first self-learning control system for abrasive water jet milling for manufacturing industries. “At the end of the project we will have produced the software and a control system to completely automate the abrasive water jet milling and, hence taking it out of the craftsmanship remit,” he said.