The proposal seeks to significantly automate the process of producing parts requiring multi-axis milling of sculpted surfaces as required by the Navy for hydro-shapes such as propellers. Harnessing recent university research involving the application of graphical processing units as inexpensive super-computing, a new subtractive 3D printing process will be applied. Phase I will work with the Navy to produce G-code mill programs in a format the Navy can import into third party CAM software packages. This unbiased verification will confirm to the Navy that the technology is suitable to its needs. A subsequent phase II effort would target the actual production of real parts via these mill programs as well as expansion of the automation to include part inspection.
Benefit: The wider spread benefits of a successful SBIR effort will bring a new level of automation to traditional subtractive manufacturing processes such as multi-axis milling. Currently, expert users of computer-aided design software spend long hours to go from as designed part to the point where the milling machine is ready to cut. A
Keywords: Milling, Milling, Computer-Aided Manufacturing, multi-axis machining, 3D printing, GPU, subtractive 3D printing, CNC path planning
