Micromachining with Nanostructured Cutting Tools

Stress-reducing defects and subsequent microcracks are a central focus during micromachining processes. After establishing the central process of micromachining Micromachining with Nanostructured Cutting Tools explains the underlying theories that describe chip formation and applies elementary cutting theory to machining at the microscale.

Divided into three parts, the second half of Micromachining with Nanostructured Cutting Tools develops on this introduction; explaining how frictional interactions between uncoated and micro tools coated with nanostructered coatings can be characterized by using the elementary micromachining theories that were initially developed for machining at the macroscale. Shaw’s methods for calculating temperatures at the interaction zone and Merchant’s methods for calculating mechanical interactions are well described and justified for machining steel in both the dry and wet states. Finally, the further development and use of micro tools coated with thin-film nanostructured diamonds are shown.

Micromachining with Nanostructured Cutting Tools is a resource for engineers and scientists working in this new field of micro and nanotechnology. The explanations of how to characterize, apply and adapt traditional approaches of understanding the mechanics of practical machining to the machining of microproducts using nanostructured tools provides a reliable reference for researchers and practitioners alike.

Doctor Mark James Jackson is a Research Associate at Saint-Gobain Abrasives’ Group Research and Development Laboratory in Northborough Research and Development Center, Massachusetts and Research Leader of Grinding Technology at the Higgins Grinding Technology Center in Worcester, Massachusetts.

After gaining his Ordinary National Diploma in Engineering with distinctions and I.C.I. prize for achievement, he read for a degree in mechanical and manufacturing engineering at Liverpool Polytechnic and spent periods in industry working for I.C.I. Pharmaceuticals, Unilever Industries, Anglo Blackwells and Unicorn International. After graduating with a Master of Engineering (M. Eng.) degree with Distinction, he subsequently read for a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph. D.) degree at Liverpool in the field of materials engineering focusing primarily on microstructure-property relationships in vitreous-bonded abrasive materials. He was subsequently employed by Unicorn Abrasives’ Central Research & Development Laboratory (Saint-Gobain Abrasives’ Group) as materials technologist, then technical manager, responsible for product and new business development in Europe, and university liaison projects concerned with abrasive process development. He then became a research fellow at the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, working on impact fracture and friction of diamond before becoming a lecturer in engineering at the University of Liverpool in 1998. In 2002, he became associate professor of mechanical engineering and faculty associate in the Centre for Manufacturing Research, Centre for Electric Power, and Centre for Water Resources and Utilization at Tennessee Technological University (an associated university of Oak Ridge National Laboratory), and a faculty associate at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. In 2005, Dr. Jackson jointly established the Advanced Manufacturing Technology Laboratory at Purdue University. In the Fall of 2005, Dr. Jackson was jointly awarded a U. S. Army Research Office award to establish the Center for Advanced Manufacturing, and a research contract from NASA’s National Centre for Advanced Manufacturing to establish the Centre for Micro and Meso Mechanical Manufacturing at Purdue Discovery Park. Dr. Jackson also worked with Purdue’s Krannert Business School on aspects of commercialising micro and nanotechnologies. Dr. Jackson was the Director of the Advanced Manufacturing Laboratory in the College of Technology and Micro Machinists’ Chair of Nanomanufacturing. Dr. Jackson was a University Faculty Scholar at Purdue University, University Faculty Fellow, and the Changjiang River Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Harbin Institute of Technology in China.