Industrial Consultancy & Sponsored Research (IC&SR) , IIT Madras
A System and Method for Measuring Cutting-edge Radius of Edged Tool
Categories for this Invention
Category: Applied Mechanics & Mechanical Engineering/Photonics/Advance Material & Manufacturing
Industry: Optics Manufacturing, Research labs, universities.
Application: Ultra-precision machining for SCD Tool in machining optical surfaces.
Market: The global market size is valued at 24.30 billion in 2022 and is predicted to reach 59.74 billion by the year 2031 at a 10.73% CAGR during the forecast period for 2023-2031.
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Problem Statement
- Single crystal diamond (SCD) tools are used in ultra-precision machining for machining optical surfaces with nanometric surface finish.
- The machined surface finish quality depends on the tool’s cutting-edge radius.
- Optical 3D sensors are used for measurement but due to light diffraction phenomenon, nanometric resolutions cannot be measured.
- Some systems used a scanning electron microscope chamber, due to SCD tool being a non-conductive material, thereby resulting in charging effect and to overcome this effect, the cutting edge of the SCD tool was coated in gold to measure edge radius.
- However, this resulted in non-uniform thickness, thereby resulting in limiting the accuracy of the tool.
- Further, in AFM technique the alignment of SCD tool tip with the AFM scanner and it is time consuming , expensive, and also holds a high risk of AFM tip breakage.
- There is need for a system and method for measuring cutting-edge radius on single-crystal diamond tool for precise quantitative measurement.
Technology
A system for measuring cutting-edge radius on an edged tool comprising:- Edged tool positioned in a tool holder.
- A replication unit has a holding unit configured to receive at least two metallic blocks.
- An indentation unit configured to forge an indentation of predefined depth by thrusting and retracting the edged tool onto the at least two metallic blocks forming the indentation
- An imaging unit configured to capture one or more images of the indentation and convert the one or more captured indentation images to one or more binary images.
- A computation unit configured to calculate an edge radius for the edged tool based on a calculated elastic recovery factor value and an intended radius experimental value.
Key Features / Value Proposition
- An accurate edge reversal method for edged tool edge radius characterization.
- Provide an indentation of sharp cutting edge of the edged tool at a predefined angle on at least two metallic blocks.
- Provide a cross-section of the indentation on the at least two metallic blocks by replicating and analyzing a cutting edge profile of the edged tool.
- Creating a replica of the cutting-edge profile by indenting the smooth surface of the substrate, without damaging the cutting-edge.
- Cutting-edge radius of the SCD tool typically from 10 nanometers.
- Cost efficiency in optics surface finish manufacturing.
Questions about this Technology?
Contact For Licensing
sm-marketing@imail.iitm.ac.in
ipoffice2@iitm.ac.in
Research Lab
Prof. Sathyan Subbiah
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Intellectual Property
IITM IDF Ref. 2299
Patent No: IN 533356
Technology Readiness Level
TRL – 4
Technology validated in lab scale.