Rotary planing, and moulding, machining operations have been employed within the woodworking industry for a number of years. Due to the rotational nature of the machining process, cuttermarks, in the form of waves, are created on the machined timber surface. It is the nature of these cuttermarks that determine the surface quality of the machined timber. It has been established that cutting tool inaccuracies and vibrations are a prime factor in the form of the cuttermarks on the timber surface. A principal aim of this thesis is to create a control architecture that is suitable for the adaptive operation of a wood planing machine in order to improve the surface quality of the machined timber. In order to improve the surface quality, a thorough understanding of the principals of wood planing is required. These principals are stated within this thesis and the ability to manipulate the rotary wood planing process, in order to achieve a higher surface quality, is shown. An existing test rig facility is utilised within this thesis, however upgrades to facilitate higher cutting and feed speeds, as well as possible future implementations such as extended cutting regimes, the test rig has been modified and enlarged. This test rig allows for the dynamic positioning of the centre of rotation of the cutterhead during a cutting operation through the use of piezo electric actuators, with a displacement range of ±15μm. A new controller for the system has been generated. Within this controller are a number of tuneable parameters. It was found that these parameters were dependant on a high number external factors, such as operating speeds and run‐out of the cutting knives. A novel approach to the generation of these parameters has been developed and implemented within the overall system. Both cutterhead inaccuracies and vibrations can be overcome, to some degree, by the vertical displacement of the cutterhead. However a crucial information element is not known, the particular displacement profile. Therefore a novel approach, consisting of a subtle change to the displacement profile and then a pattern matching approach, has been implemented onto the test rig. Within the pattern matching approach the surface profiles are simplified to a basic form. This basic form allows for a much simplified approach to the pattern matching whilst producing a result suitable for the subtle change approach. In order to compress the data levels a Principal Component Analysis was performed on the measured surface data. Patterns were found to be present in the resultant data matrix and so investigations into defect classification techniques have been carried out using both K‐Nearest Neighbour techniques and Neural Networks. The application of these novel approaches has yielded a higher system performance, for no additional cost to the mechanical components of the wood planing machine, both in terms of wood throughput and machined timber surface quality.

Additive manufacturing (AM) offers a way to manufacture highly complex designs with potentially enhanced performance as it is free from many of the constraints associated with traditional manufacturing. However, current design and optimisation tools, which were developed much earlier than AM, do not allow efficient exploration of AM's design space. Among these tools are a set of numerical methods/algorithms often used in the field of structural optimisation called topology optimisation (TO). These powerful techniques emerged in the 1980s and have since been used to achieve structural solutions with superior performance to those of other types of structural optimisation. However, such solutions are often constrained during optimisation to minimise structural complexities, thereby, ensuring that solutions can be manufactured via traditional manufacturing methods. With the advent of AM, it is necessary to restructure these techniques to maximise AM's capabilities. Such restructuring should involve identification and relaxation of the optimisation constraints within the TO algorithms that restrict design for AM. These constraints include the initial design, optimisation parameters and mesh characteristics of the optimisation problem being solved. A typical TO with certain mesh characteristics would involve the movement of an assumed initial design to another with improved structural performance. It was anticipated that the complexity and performance of a solution would be affected by the optimisation constraints. This work restructured a TO algorithm called the bidirectional evolutionary structural optimisation (BESO) for AM. MATLAB and MSC Nastran were coupled to study and investigate BESO for both two and three dimensional problems. It was observed that certain parametric values promote the realization of complex structures and this could be further enhanced by including an adaptive meshing strategy (AMS) in the TO. Such a strategy reduced the degrees of freedom initially required for this solution quality without the AMS.

With the continuing trend towards miniaturization, micro milling plays an increasingly important role in fabrication of freeform and high-accuracy micro parts or components directly and cost-effectively. The technology is in kinematics scaled down from the conventional milling, however, existing knowledge and experiences are limited and comprehensive studies on the micro tooling performance are essential and much needed particularly for the process planning and optimization. The cutting performance of micro tools is largely dependent on the dynamic performance of machine tools, tooling characteristics, work material properties and process conditions, and the latter three aspects will be focused in the study. The state of the art of micro milling technology with respect to the tooling performance has been critically reviewed, together with modelling work for performance prediction as well as metrology and instrumentation for the performance characterization. A novel 3D finite element method taking into account the geometry of a micro tool, including the tool diameter, rake angle, relief angle, cutting edge radius and helix angle, has been proposed for modelling and simulation of the micro milling process. Validation through well-designed micro milling trials demonstrates that the approach is capable of characterizing the milling process effectively. With the support of FEM simulation developed, the tooling geometrical effects, including those from helix angle, rake angle and cutting edge radius with influences on cutting forces, tool stresses, tool temperatures, milling chip formation and temperatures have been comprehensively studied and compared for potential micro tool design and optimization purposes. In an effort to prolong the tool life and enhance the tooling efficiency, DLC and NCD coatings have been deposited on micro end mills by PE-CVD and HF-CVD processes respectively. Corresponding cutting performance of these coated tools have been assessed and compared with those of WC micro tools in both dry and wet cutting conditions so as for better understanding of the coating influence on micro tools. Furthermore, the cutting characteristics of the DLC coated and uncoated tools have been analysed through verified plane-strain simulations. The effects of coating friction coefficient, coating thickness and UCT have been determined and evaluated by design of simulation method. Mechanical, chemical and physical properties of a work material have a direct influence on its micro-machinability. Five most common engineering materials including Al 6061-T6, C101, AISI 1045, 304 and P20, have been experimentally investigated and their micro milling behaviours in terms of the cutting forces, tool wear, surface roughness, and micro-burr formation have been compared and characterized. Feed rate, cutting speed and axial depth of cut constitute the complete set of process variables and they have significant effects on the tooling performance. Fundamental understanding of their influences is essential for production engineers to determine optimum cutting parameters so as to achieve the maximum extension of the tool life. 3D FE-based simulations have been carried out to predict the process variable effects on the cutting forces, tool stresses, tool temperatures as well as micro milling chip formation and temperatures. Furthermore, experimental approach has been adopted for the surface roughness characterization. Suggestions on selecting practical cutting variables have been provided in light of the results obtained. Conclusions with respect to the holistic investigation on the tooling performance in micro milling have been drawn based on the research objectives achieved. Recommendations for future work have been pointed out particularly for further future research in the research area.

3D printers are a type of digital fabrication tool being used by communities committed to shared software, hardware, and digital designs. This shared digital knowledge can be understood as an emerging common resource for the fabrication of physical goods and services. Yet the knowledge associated with physical resources used in 3D printing is less understood. This thesis explores what factors enable or prevent knowledge about physical materials entering the commons. 3D printing, with its particular configuration of digital and physical goods, offers a unique angle to advance the field of commons scholarship. This thesis elaborates the use of commons theory for traversing the boundary between knowledge associated with physical materials and digital content from the perspective of 3D printer users. Particular contributions are made to the branch of knowledge commons theory: notably, how design rules in technological systems can be used to theorise boundaries; how differentiating between the nature of underlying resources can help explain the inclusion of knowledge in the commons; and, how patterns of user engagement with types of knowledge in the commons can be studied over time. To develop these contributions I employ theory on the design rules of technological architecture, and use insights from the study of peer production in online communities. Empirical data comes from a qualitative study of users of Fab Labs, community workshops for digital fabrication, as well as from a quantitative study of the online user forum for the Ultimaker 3D printer.

The increasing number of small and fragile parts that are being manufactured using micromachining technology has raised the demand for co-ordinate measurement machines (CMM) that can measure on a micro- and millimetric scale without contacting the part, thus avoiding damage to the surface of the part. These instruments are expected to measure on a micro- and millimetric scale with a measuring uncertainty in the nanometre range. A number of techniques used for contactless surface measurements exist, such as the focus variation (FV) technique, which have the ability to perform measurements on the micro- and millimetric scale in a short amount of time. These instruments may have the potential to be implemented in a non-contact micro-CMM platform.

Various sources of error hinder the possibility of achieving tight accuracy requirements for high-value manufacturing processes. These are often classified as: pseudo-static geometric errors; non-rigid body errors; thermal errors; and dynamic errors. It is comparatively complicated to obtain an accurate error map for the thermal errors because they are influenced by various factors with different materials, time constants, asymmetric heating sources and machining process, environmental effects, etc. Their transient nature and complex interaction mean that they are relatively difficult to compensate using pre-calibration methods. For error correction, the magnitude and sign of the error must first be measured or estimated. Pre-calibrated thermal compensation has been shown to be an effective means of improving accuracy. However, the time required to acquire the calibration data is prohibitive, reducing the uptake of this technology in industrial applications. Furthermore, changing conditions of the machine or factory environment are not adequately accommodated by pre-calibrated compensation, leading to degradation in performance. The supplementary use of on-machine probing, which is often installed for process control, can help to achieve better results. During the probing operation, the probe is carried by the machine tool axes. Therefore, the measurement data that it takes inevitably includes both the probing errors and those originating from the inaccuracies of a machine tool as well as any deviation in the part or artefact being measured. Each of these error sources must be understood and evaluated to be able to establish a measurement with a stated uncertainty. This is a vital preliminary step to ensure that the calibration parameters of the thermal model are not contaminated by other effects. This thesis investigates the various sources of measurement uncertainties for probing on a CNC machine tool and quantify their effects in the particular case where the on-machine probing is used to calibrate the thermal error model. Thermal errors constitute the largest uncertainty source for on-machine probing. The maximum observed thermal displacement error was approximately 220 μm for both X and Z-axis heating test at 100 % speed. To reduce the influence of this uncertainty source, sensor data fusion model using artificial neural network and principal component analysis was developed. The output of this model showed better than 90 % correlation to the measured thermal displacement. This data fusion model was developed for the temperature and FBG sensors. To facilitate the integration of the sensor and to ease the communication with machine tool controller, a modular machine tool structural monitoring system using LabVIEW environment was developed. Finally, to improve the performance of the data fusion model in order to reduce the thermal uncertainty, a novel photo-microsensor based sensing head for displacement measurement is presented and analysed in detail. This prototype sensor has measurement range of 20 μm and resolution of 21 nm.

Les FabLabs, les hackerspaces et les makerspaces sont des ateliers collectifs équipés de machines à commandes numériques et organisés en réseau. Ces lieux s’inscrivent dans l’élan du mouvement maker et dans l’héritage des hackers. Ils se présentent comme des espaces ouverts à tous et pour tout faire. Malgré une forte médiatisation, la réalité des discours et des pratiques qui s’y développent est encore peu étudiée. Cette thèse en esthétique et en design s’appuie sur une vaste enquête ethnographique menée de 2012 à 2015 au coeur de ces communautés, en France et à l’étranger.De nombreux entretiens et observations dessinées permettent une description critique des manières de faire rencontrées sur ces terrains.Les pratiques, les discours et les ambitions de la fabrication numérique personnelle se construisent dans les marges des territoires classiques de l’industrie et du design et en brouillent les cadres historiques. La première partie de la thèse retrace les origines des mouvements maker et hacker et des FabLabs. En s’appuyant sur des données de première mains et sur des récits plus classiques, elle montre comment la contre-culture américaine et les ambitions technophilesdes chercheurs du MIT rencontrent des appropriations locales divergentes.La réhabilitation du plaisir au travail et l’héritage des Arts and Crafts sont deux aspects qui permettent d’envisager ces lieux comme des terrains d’expérimentation sociale, au-delà de la stricte production. Dans la deuxième partie, la thèse se concentre sur les valeurs d’ouverture et de partage prônées par les amateurs, bricoleurs, makers ou inventeurs contemporains. L’hypothèse d’un design ouvert et participatif conçu hors des standards de la production industrielle de masse est examinée. L’« open design » place la production d’objets dans le sillage de l’open source. Les résultats de ce type de production dessinent les contours encore fl ous d’un territoire nouveau pour le design.La troisième partie étudie les promesses et contradictions qui entourent la démocratisation de l’innovation et de la production. L’impression 3D est prise comme cas d’étude emblématique pour étudier les ambivalences de l’émancipation espérée par les porteparoles du mouvement maker. Ces pratiques hésitantes nourrissent les ramifi cations de ce que nous proposons d’appeler un design diffus. Celui-ci se développe par tâtonnements dans les communautés d’amateurs et touche à des activités créatives d’invention, de Conception et de fabrication.L’étendue rhizomatique des manières de faire propresau design diff us est composée d’objets sans apparat,situés dans les marges de l’industrie. Selon la défi nitionqui en est proposée, ils sont conçus de manière ouverteet documentée dans l’objectif d’explorer et de contribuerà la découverte des technologies de la fabricationnumérique personnelle. Sans constituer de paradigmeclos, le design diff us détourne les normes instituées etles procédures classiques du design et de l’industriepour proposer une conception exploratoire et ouverte dela fabrication. / FabLabs, hackerspaces and makerspaces are shared workshops, equipped with digital tools and organised in a network. These places are connected to the maker movement and are heirs to hackers.They off er themselves as places where anybody can come and make anything. In spite of some strong media coverage, the reality of discourses and practices that occur in those places has not yet been much studied. This dissertation in Aesthetics and design is based on a large ethnographic survey conducted between 2012 and 2015, in France and abroad. A series of interviews and drawn observations allows for a critical description of the ways of doing that can be witnessed on these fields. Practices, discourses and ambitions of personal digital fabrication are built in the margins of the classical fields of industry and design, blurring their historical frames. The fi rst part of this dissertation retraces the origins of FabLabs as well as of the maker and hacker movements. First hand data and classical accounts reveal how American counter-culture and the technophile ambitions of MIT researchers result in diverging local appropriations.The rehabilitation of pleasure at work and the heritage of the Arts and Crafts both point to these places as fields ofsocial experimentation, beyond mere production. In the second part, this dissertation focuses on the values of openness and sharing advocated by contemporary amateurs, tinkerers, makers or inventors. The hypothesis of a design that could be open, participative, out of the standards of industrial mass production is examined. « Open design » places the production of artefacts in the wake of open source. This type of production ends up shaping a new, though hazy, field for design.The third part studies the promises and contradictions that surround the democratization of innovation and production. 3D printing is taken as an emblematic case study to consider the ambivalences behind the emancipation expected by representatives of the maker movement.These indecisive practices feed the branches of what we might call 'diff use design'. It develops itself by trial and error in amateur communities and reaches creative activities of invention, conception and fabrication. The rhizomatic area of diff use design comprises rather plain objects, situated in the margins of industry. According to this defi nition, they are produced in an open and documented way, in order to explore and contribute to the discovery of digital fabricationtechnologies. Diff use design is not a closed paradigm, but turns away from instituted norms and off ers an openand exploratory conception of fabrication.

Les difficultés majeures rencontrées en production des pièces mécaniques métalliques sont dues aux conditions de chargements extrêmes appliqués lors de la mise en forme ainsi qu'au problème de l'usure prématurée des outils de coupe de coupe. Dans ce cadre, les travaux de thèse sont centrés sur la mise en évidence et la compréhension des mécanismes physiques mis en jeu lors de l'usure des outils de coupe depuis l'échelle de la microstructure jusqu'à celle du système usinant, en passant par l'échelle de la pointe de l'outil (échelle mésoscopique). A cet effet, Un modèle analytique permettant de décrire l'usure par abrasion et de prédire la durée de vie des outils a été développé sur la base d'une approche statistique rendant compte de l'hétérogénéité des particules pouvant être à l'origine de la dégradation de l'outil. La prise en compte de la nature du contact collant-glissant et de l'effet du coefficient de frottement via des résultats de la littérature couplés au modèle proposé ont permis de mettre en évidence l'influence des paramètres opératoires de la coupe des métaux sur le volume d'usure enlevé par abrasion. A la suite ce modèle a été confronté à des résultats expérimentaux préalablement réalisé dans le cadre de la coupe orthogonale. En parallèle une analyse inclusionnaire est réalisée pour l'identification et la quantification des inclusions non métallique jugées responsable de l'usure par abrasion. Les résultats obtenue via des observations MEB et microscopique ainsi que des traitements d'images a permis d'alimenter en données le modèle prédictif / Tool wear and tool failure are critical problems in the industrial manufacturing field since they affect the quality of the machined workpiece (unexpected surface finish or dimensional tolerance) and raise the production cost. Improving our knowledge of wear mechanisms and capabilities of wear prediction are therefore of great importance in machining. The three main wear modes usually identified at the tool/chip and the tool/workpiece interfaces are abrasion, adhesion and diffusion. Besides the fact that understanding mechanisms that govern these wear mechanisms are still incomplete, the experimental analysis is very difficult because friction interface features (such as temperature, pressure, particles embedded in the contact …) are not easily measurable. The objective of this research work is to understand the physical mechanisms governing the tool wear by taking into account the sensibilities to scale going from the microscopic scale (microstructure scale) to the macroscopic scale (scale of the manufacturing operation) passing by the mesoscopic scale (tool tip scale). For this purpose, an analytic wear model was developed to describe the abrasive wear and to predict the cutting tool life. The proposed model is based on a tribological approach including a statistical description of the distribution of particles seen as non-metallic inclusions. The latter are assumed embedded at the interface of contact and having a conical shape characterized by two main parameters in the present approach: the corresponding size and apex angle. The volume of the removed material per unit time is chosen in this study as the main parameter to describe the abrasive wear mode. Coupled with literature results, the developed model is able to take into account the nature of the sticking-sliding contact and the effect of the friction coefficient on the rake face of the cutting tool. In order to identify all the material's parameters of the predictive model, a study of non-metallic inclusion considered responsible of the abrasive wear was performed on the 42CD4 steel. The determination of inclusion type and inclusion morphology was assessed qualitatively and quantitatively through microscopic and MEB observations as well as image processing. Finally, the volume removed by abrasion given by the model was compared to the experimental results previously achieved under orthogonal cutting.

Nowadays technology development places increasing demands on miniature and micro components and products, and micro-milling is one of the most flexible machining processes in manufacturing 3D structures and complex structured surfaces. A thorough and scientific understanding on fundamentals of the micro-milling process is essential for applying it in an industrial scale. Therefore, in-depth scientific understanding of the micro-cutting mechanics is critical, particularly on size effect, minimum chip thickness, chip formation, tool wear and cutting temperature, etc. so as to fulfil the gap between fundamentals and industrial scale applications. Therefore, three key fundamental research topics are determined for this research, and a comprehensive study on those topics is conducted by means of modeling, simulation, experiments. The topics include chip formation process in micro-milling, novel cutting force modeling in multiscale and study on the tool wear and process monitoring. The investigation into chip formation process in micro-milling consists of three stages; the micro-cutting process is firstly simulated by means of FEA with a primary focus on finding the minimum chip thickness for different tool/material pair and explaining the size effect; the simulation results are then validated by conducting micro-cutting experiment on the ultra-precision lathe. Experiments are carried out on aluminium 6082-T6 with both natural diamond and tungsten carbide tool. By knowing the minimum chip thickness for different tool/material pair, the chip formation process is investigated by performing comparative study by using the diamond and tungsten carbide micro-milling tools. As the minimum chip thickness for diamond micro-milling tool is smaller than that for tungsten carbide tool compared to nominal chip thickness, MCT is ignored in diamond micro-milling. Thus the comparative study is conducted by utilizing both tools with perfectly sharpened cutting edge and tools with the rounded cutting edge in micro-milling. The chips are inspected and associated with cutting force variations in the micro-milling process. The findings are further consolidated by comparing with research results by other researchers. The cutting force modeling is developed in three different aspects, e.g. cutting force on the unit length or area and cutting force on the unit volume in order to better understand the micro-cutting mechanics in aspects of size effect, tool wear mechanism and the cutting energy consumption. The mathematical modeling firstly starts with a novel instantaneous chip thickness algorithm, in which the instantaneous chip thickness is computed by taking account of the change of tool geometry brought about by the tool runout; then the collected cutting forces are utilized to calibrate the model coefficients. For accurate measurement on cutting forces, the Kalman Filter technique is employed to compensate the distortion of the measured cutting force. Model calibration is implemented using least-square method. The proposed cutting force model is then applied in micro-milling to represent the conditions of tool wear and the cutting energy consumption. Further study on the surface generation simulation is based on force model and its comparison with the machined surface is also performed. Cutting experiments using the new tungsten carbide tool are carried out and the tool wear is monitored offline at different machining stages. The dominant tool wear types are characterised. Tool wear is investigated by mainly analysing cutting force at different tool wear status. Frequency analysis by Fourier Transform and Wavelet Transform are carried out on the force signals, and features closely related to the tool wear status are identified and extracted. The potential of applying these features to monitoring the tool wear process is then discussed. Experimental studies to machine the structured surface and nano-metric level surface roughness are presented, the machining efficiency, dimensional accuracy and tool-path strategies are optimised so as to achieve the desired outcomes. Moreover, investigation on cutting temperature in micro-cutting is also studied to some extent by means of simulation; the influence of cutting edge radius on cutting temperature is particularly investigated. Investigation on above aspects provides systematic exploration into the micro-milling process and can contribute substantially to future micro-milling applications.

Ces travaux de thèse proposent une analyse tribologique de l’opération de découpage sur presse. Une meilleure connaissance des mécanismes d’usure présents sur les poinçons de découpage est nécessaire pour permettre leur reproduction en laboratoire et ainsi tester de nouveaux matériaux d’outils, pour allonger leur durée de vie et augmenter la productivité des outillages. Dans un premier temps un tribomètre de type ouvert est développé afin de recréer les mécanismes d’usure par abrasion présents sur presse. Cette configuration ouverte est choisie car lors de la découpe, l’outil vient découper une pièce sur une surface neuve en continue. Les caractéristiques innovantes de ce tribomètre sont la possibilité d’installer directement des tôles identiques à celles découpées, et les distances de frottement qui peuvent approcher cinq kilomètres sur surface neuve. Une approche énergétique de l’usure est mise en place afin de comparer les résultats obtenus avec le tribomètre et les mesures sur presse. En effet, dans un second temps, des essais réels sur presse à découper avec un outil instrumenté sont conduits. La mesure de l’usure du poinçon par réplication et par activation superficielle sont les deux techniques « in-situ » mises en place lors des essais. Différentes configurations de découpe sont testées afin d’observer leur impact sur l’effort de découpage, l’aspect du bord découpé et l’usure du poinçon. L’usure du poinçon est trop faible dans l’essai de découpage pour être mesurée, mais les taux d’énergie dissipée dans le frottement peuvent être estimés. Dans un troisième temps une comparaison des énergies dissipées dans le frottement sur le tribomètre et sur presse montre d’importants écarts. Pour les expliquer, une simulation par éléments finis de l’opération de découpe est conduite. Une prédiction de l’usure est établie afin de montrer le potentiel de la méthode d’approche énergétique. Une analyse vibratoire de l’outil montre que la phase de fissuration de la tôle induit des oscillations parfois nombreuses du poinçon qui peuvent conduire à de l’usure par fatigue. Des essais d’usure par fatigue sont réalisés et montrent que suivant les nuances, le carbure de tungstène usiné par électroérosion à fil est moins résistant à l’écaillage. / This work proposes a tribological analysis of the blanking operation. A better knowledge of the wear mechanisms present on the cutting punches is necessary to allow their reproduction in the laboratory and thus to test new tools materials, to extend their life time and increase the productivity of the process. Firstly, an open-type tribometer is developed in order to recreate the abrasive wear mechanisms present on the press. The innovative characteristics of this tribometer are the possibility of directly installing sheets identical to cutting pieces, and the friction distances can approach five kilometers on new surface. An energy approach of the wear is conducted in order to compare the results obtained with the tribometer and measurements on the press. Secondly, real tests on a cutting press with an instrumented tool are carried out. The measurement of the wear of the punch by replication and thin layer activation are the two "in-situ" techniques put in place during the tests. Differents cutting configurations are tested in order to observe their impact on the cutting force, the appearance of the cut edge and the wear of the punch. The wear of the punch is too low in the cutting test to be measured, but the rates of energy dissipated in the friction can be estimated. Thirdly, a comparison of the dissipated energies of friction on the tribometer and on the press shows significant deviations. To explain them, a finite element simulation of the cutting operation is carried out. A prediction of wear is established to show the potential of the energetic approach. A vibratory analysis of the tool shows that the phase of cracking of the sheet induces sometimes numerous oscillations of the punch which can lead to wear by fatigue.