The Virtual Machining and Optimization Workshop, coorganized by the AMRC and Twin-Control, took place on March 1, 2018. The workshop consisted of presentations and an on-machine demonstration of a new online simulation and measurement capability developed on a Starrag Ecospeed machine tool in the Twin-control project.
70 people registered to the event. Due to adverse weather conditions on the day, the workshop was relocated to the Holiday Inn Royal Victoria Hotel. In spite of the weather conditions, 35 people attended the workshop in person and around 30 people joined via link call.
Erdem Ozturk from AMRC opened the workshop with an introduction to Virtual Machining and Optimization. He explained the benefits of virtual machining as a tool for process optimization, process diagnostics and control. He also shared the historical perspective of the field. Later, he presented the existing commercial solutions on the market. He highlighted that this is an active research field driven by new machining processes (i.e. power skiving), tools (i.e. variable helix tools) and platforms (i.e. serial/parallel kinematic robots).
Next, Scott Ravenscroft from CGTech presented the VERICUT Force™ software which can simulate cutting forces and do feed rate scheduling with the aim of minimizing cycle time. It is an available product on the market and can be used for process optimization.
Afterwards, Twin-Control partners delivered presentations informing the audience about the project and updating them with the recent developments. Mikel Armendia from IK4-TEKNIKER gave an overview of the Twin-Control project. Frédéric Cugnon from Samtech then delivered a presentation entitled “Advance mechatronic modelling of machine tool and machining process”. Tobias Fuertjes from Artis then explained the contributions of Artis in the project on local process monitoring which is an enabler for Industry 4.0. Next, Denys Plakhotnik presented how ModuleWorks has helped in simulation of material removal and visualization of measured and simulated data in the Twin-Control project.
Finally, Luke Berglind from AMRC updated the audience on the Twin-Control process model. As it was not possible to move the Starrag Ecospeed machine to the Holiday Inn Royal Victoria Hotel, Luke demonstrated the new online simulation with integrated measurement capability through prerecorded videos.
This video by the AMRC summarizes the workshop and its content.
Presentations from the workshop, along with the agenda showing the presentation order, and title and affiliation of the presenters, are also available online.