VeritasCNC awarded prestigious National Science Foundation Small Business Innovative Research grant in smart machining!
Oct. 27, 2009: Stimulus Tax Dollars Supporting the Future of CNC Manufacturing
VeritasCNC Inc. (Carrboro, NC) announces the award of a National Science
Foundation (NSF)
Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant to develop products that
will fundamentally
change the way parts are machined. Dr. Donald Esterling, CEO of VeritasCNC,
pioneered the
development and wide-spread commercialization of NC verification. VeritasCNC
is developing
similar disruptive productivity tools in collaboration with leading industry,
university and
government laboratories. The products are based on proven scientific
principles that operate
“under the hood” presenting the user with an easy to understand,
machinist-friendly interface.
The flagship products cncCheck™ and cncTune™, currently
available from VeritasCNC, apply a
combined physics and geometry model that respectively analyzes CNC part
programs and
optimizes the tool path with continuously variable feeds. cncCheck performs
critical machining
process validation for the CAM-generated part program, much as NC verification
provides an
essential path geometry validation. cncTune automatically adjusts programmed
feeds based on
familiar machining conditions. Rather than relying on best guesses for
a maximum material
removal rate, which is often not well known and can vary from tool to
tool or part to part,
cncTune adjusts feeds using such practical settings as available spindle
power, part quality
(tolerance), chip load and tool breakage concerns. “Optimization” is
allowed only within safe
limits and at times cncTune may actually slow down the cutting speed.
The first concerns are
part quality and tool/CNC health; feeds are only maximized within the
prescribed limits.
Moving beyond CAM analysis and optimization, VeritasCNC is developing
automated tool wear
prediction by integrating CNC control information with its science-based
model. No more
guessing on how long the tool will last. No more onerous training and
experiments prior to
final machining. Tool wear will be monitored and predicted from the very
first tool cut, guided
by science-based tool force computations, automatically adjusting feeds
to safe levels. Tool
wear is often ignored in optimization, but is a critical factor. Experimental
tests by VeritasCNC
and collaborators demonstrate that forces can double or more with a worn
tool while the tool
remains serviceable. This is similar to setting a car’s cruise
control to 60 MPH when a safe speed
(e.g. due to ice or road conditions) is 30 MPH … an accident waiting
to happen. Prototype
systems demonstrate that VeritasCNC products will be able to predict
tool wear transparently
and directly from the CNC data, not relying on often unreliable Taylor
Law estimates.
About VeritasCNC
VeritasCNC Inc. was founded to develop products that will fundamentally
alter current
manufacturing practice. Building on past success in geometric validation
(NC verification),
VeritasCNC is applying proven scientific models of the cutting process
to assist manufacturers in
selecting safe and optimal CNC cutting conditions. The current research
grant, totaling almost
three quarters of a million dollars when combined with funding from the
State of North
Carolina, was subjected to an intense technical and business review process.
Less than 5% of
the companies submitting initial applications receive NSF SBIR (Phase
2) funding.