WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – James Mann, CEO of M4 Sciences LLC, that the company has achieved a milestone in product development of the TriboMAM® drilling system for Modulation-Assisted Machining® (MAM) technology. The company has just completed demonstration of a next-generation TriboMAM drilling system design that will be adaptable to CNC vertical and horizontal machining centers that require rotating tools (referred to as "live" tools).
"The successful demonstration of a rotating TriboMAM drilling system will expand M4 Sciences' target market by tenfold over our current commercial product," Mann said. The market is adopting MAM technology and TriboMAM for drilling in CNC lathe machines, and the expansion to vertical and horizontal machining centers will revolutionize precision hole-drilling processes around the world."
He added that vertical and horizontal CNC machining centers make up the majority of metal machining systems world-wide, and production of a diverse range of high-performance products in the automotive, aerospace, electronics and orthopedic sectors require some type of drilling on CNC machining centers, which can benefit directly from TriboMAM drilling systems.
M4 Sciences is already engaged with a strategic customer to introduce a custom rotating TriboMAM for horizontal machining centers within the next 18 months along with a commercial industrial version for specific market segments. M4 Sciences anticipates the new drilling system, referred to by M4 Sciences engineers as "TriboMAM-live," will bring MAM technology to the forefront of manufacturing technology.
M4 Sciences' MAM technology enables up to a 500 percent increase in productivity in precision drilling for the manufacture of orthopedic, automotive, aerospace, industrial and hydraulic systems. In 2009 M4 Sciences introduced the first commercial TriboMAM drilling system that superimposes a low-frequency oscillation in machining processes, and the company received the 2010 R&D 100 Award. In September 2011, the company announced a technology sublicensing agreement with a world-leading manufacturer, Belgium based NV Bekaert SA.
The 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, also a co-author of the patents, co-founded M4 Sciences in 2005 at the Purdue Research Park.
"M4 Sciences is a recognized leader in ultra-precision machining and this new development is a tremendous asset for the global metals processing industry," said Joseph B. Hornett, senior vice president, treasurer and COO of the Purdue Research Foundation, which manages the Purdue Research Park. "The growth of this product is a testament to the important research being conducted at Purdue and how discoveries such as TriboMAM are making a global impact."