UC professor researches novel glass machining
Murali Sundaram receives an NSF grant for his study of gas film in the glass machining process
One of Murali Sundarim's graduate students works in the lab. Photo/Corrie Stookey/CEAS Marketing
Glass is becoming increasingly important in biomedical, electronic, automotive and energy fields. Potential emerging applications for glass include packaging, brake linings, prosthetics and fuel cells. But manufacturing this glass is another story.
University of Cincinnati Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering Murali Sundaram, Ph.D., recently received a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant for $301,472 for his work, “A Fundamental Study on Gas Film Formation and Its Effect in Electrochemical Discharge Machining Process.” He is researching how to manipulate manufactured ceramics like glass.
“Everybody knows glass is a very difficult material to machine, but it has many good properties,” says Sundaram. “I am studying how we can machine manufactured glass into a ready-to-use state.”
Currently, if you want to manufacture something made of glass, or a glass-like property like porcelain, you have to mold each individual product into its final shape in the manufacturing process. You cannot shape a chunk of glass into something you want, as you can with metals or plastics, because of the physical composition of the glass itself. Should you drill into a glass item, that item will crack and become useless.
“Any glass you have – for example, a teacup – is made into its final shape, so you can readily use it,” says Sundaram. “Now we are going beyond that.”
Rather than applying metal machining techniques to glass, Sundaram is studying the application electrochemical discharge machining to the shaping of glass.
Everybody knows glass is a very difficult material to machine, but it has many good properties.
Murali Sundaram, UC professor of mechanical engineering
Electrochemical discharge machining is a nontraditional manufacturing process that improves the surface integrity of materials like glass. A tool discharges sparks (caused by electric currents) through a nonconductive material – in this case, glass – and heats up the material. Because of the electrochemical and thermal reactions, gas forms as a byproduct.
This gas film, and the heat that comes from the electric current, is what actually drives the machining process. It’s also what Sundaram is most interested in.
“People pay attention to electrical parameters, but they always ignore the gas film that is doing the job,” says Sundaram. “We want to understand how this gas film is formed and how we can control that.”
An image of a hole in a sheet of glass created by glass machining. Photo/Provided
Gas bubbles naturally stick to a solid surface – in this case, the tool facilitating electric discharges and the glass material. It makes more sense if we imagine lightning, says Sundaram. Lightning currents jump from cloud to cloud. Like lightning, the electric current from the tool can jump from one gas bubble to another, creating energy that becomes the heat driving the glass machining.
By studying the gas film that forms during this process, Sundaram can better understand the machining process of glass and start controlling it. If not, the gas that forms during glass machining may remain an unpredictable process, and, therefore, unpopular with industries.
Sundaram hopes machining glass will someday become as simple drilling into a material. “You don’t have to be an engineer to drill a hole with a drill press, but you know exactly what’s going to happen,” he says. “That type of understanding is what we are going for with glass.”
Sundaram has a PhD student and master’s student working with him on this project, but he welcomes any undergraduate students interested in innovative manufacturing technology to contact him.
“Our lab is open to all undergraduate students who want to become researchers,” says Sundaram.
With the grant from the National Science Foundation, Sundaram and UC students can start shaping the machining process for ceramic materials like glass. Someday, your morning routine – from drinking coffee out of a mug to brushing your teeth in the sink – may be shaped by this same research.
Featured image at top: UC professor Murali Sundarim works with two of his graduate students in the lab. Photo/Corrie Stookey/CEAS Marketing.
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