Date: Nov 14, 2012 Source: (
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M4 Sciences has delivered new 'LIVE' TriboMAM® drilling systems for Modulation-Assisted Machining (MAM)® technology. The system could change global product manufacturing because it enables a new method of mechanical drilling in high-performance metals and alloys such as stainless steels and titanium alloys.
Last year the company announced a major advancement in product development by demonstrating the first-of-its-kind rotating 'LIVE' TriboMAM system. The new system is an innovation in M4 Sciences' patented drilling system that uses piezo-electric actuators and precision motion control to oscillate drill tools and increase drilling productivity in computer numerically controlled (CNC) lathe machine tools. The 'LIVE' TriboMAM drilling system is now adaptable to CNC vertical or horizontal machining centers and drilling machines with rotating tools (referred to as "live" tools) that serve a key role in global manufacturing.
Mann, Ph.D., described the new application as a "breakthrough in machining technology" since the new TriboMAM drilling system not only delivers increased production efficiency, but enables drilling of complex and difficult-to-drill metals and alloys.
"The commercial TriboMAM-LIVE drilling system will alter the future course of machining technology," Mann said. He said the introduction was motivated by an "industry champion and partner customer that recognized M4 Sciences' TriboMAM drilling system and MAM technology as a pathway to a market leap." Although commercial agreements prevent M4 Sciences from naming the customer or disclosing the product application, Mann said, "The delivery of this new version of TriboMAM marks a historic event for M4 Sciences. This will enable an industry leading customer to market and manufacture a new product design that was previously not viable to produce." In 2012 M4 Sciences introduced two new TriboMAM drilling system designs and expanded market applications for its existing product line.
"By expanding M4 Sciences' product line and working in partnership with our customers, we are engineering our way into new markets," Mann said.
This year M4 Sciences delivered TriboMAM systems to new markets in Brazil, Taiwan and Germany. Mann anticipates the introduction of the new TriboMAM-LIVE drilling system will increase the target market. He said vertical and horizontal CNC machining centers make up the majority of metal machining systems world-wide production of a diverse range of high-performance products in the automotive, aerospace, electronics and orthopedic sectors. Manufacture of these products often requires some type of drilling on CNC machining centers and the production efficiency can benefit directly using TriboMAM drilling systems.
"We are working together with our customers, machine tool manufacturers and university researchers to achieve global adoption of MAM technology," Mann said.
"MAM technology offers a profound advantage in machining operations by altering the physics of the process. The underlying physics in metal cutting is a technology barrier to achieving increased machining productivity. M4 Sciences is breaking that barrier now with a disruptive innovation in drilling operations." M4 Sciences' TriboMAM drilling systems and MAM technology enable up to a 500 percent productivity increase for CNC mechanical drilling processes. In 2009 M4 Sciences introduced the first commercial TriboMAM drilling system with product sales to date in nine countries. In 2011 it announced a technology sub-licensing agreement with a world-leading manufacturer, Belgium-based NV Bekaert SA.
The patented machining technology developed by M4 Sciences was discovered at Purdue University's School of Industrial Engineering and licensed through the Purdue Research Foundation's Office of Technology Commercialization. Mann, a co-author of the patents, co-founded M4 Sciences in 2005 at the Purdue Research Park of West Lafayette.
