Industrial Application Study and Development of a Control Strategy for an Ice Clamping Device

Industrial Application Study and Development of a Control Strategy for an Ice Clamping Device
This research investigates a non-traditional, phase changing workpiece clamping method, actuated by the thermoelectric effect: clamping with frozen water. Clamping by means of adhesive and cohesive forces of ice introduces a sustainable and flexible clamping technology for a nearly deformation-free clamping of hard-to-clamp workpieces, as thin-walled and fragile parts, complex geometries or soft mate
The scope of this work is to generate a comprehensive knowledge basis of the ice clamping technology, especially focused on the industrial demands for conventional machining processes in an industrial environment. Since process heat introduces the main risk for the performance security, various control strategies as well as sensorless state and disturbance estimations are discussed and investigated.
Main Content:

-- Examination of the possibilities and the limits for the operational capability and the technical usability by measurements. -- Mathematical representation and control derivation with regard to the deduced weaknesses of the ice clamping system in order to exploit its possibilities, focused on the industrial processing. -- Optimization of the ice clamping system as a consequence of Industry 4.0: technical extensions are specified as to the nature of smart manufacturing. The work closes with the propose of an advanced ice clamping device, paving the way for a subpixel inspired geometrical shape detection approach.