This project aims to develop an advanced five-axis high speed milling machine and test stands. This equipment will be used for research and testing of the five-axis high speed milling technology currently under investigation. This technology is of interest to forging die, stamping die, and injection mold making and other industries, particularly those in the aircraft manufacturing businesses. It is also useful to many fields for rapid prototyping of parts. An emphasis of the equipment development will be the longevity of the drive and guideway components subjected to frequent accelerations and decelerations which are much higher than in the current practice. The development will employ the latest numerical control and servo control techniques. The development of the five-axis high speed machine tool utilizes and integrates leading-edge technologies on feed drives, guideways, and spindles. The equipment is valuable for research on high-speed machining of various materials and geometries and on development of open-architecture controllers. The project is done in collaboration with several industrial companies.
