Doctoral Position

**Offer description**

The PhD will be developed in collaboration with the cutting tool, manufacturer NECO.

NECO with today’s vast array of advanced coating processes and coating materials, faces he problem of finding the most suitable manufacturing configuration for finishing tapping tools. Moreover, aspects such as waste reduction, energy optimisation and lifecycle extension of cutting tools should be accomplished.
- Drag Finishing
- Laser marking
- Final control
- Coatings
- Greasing
- ...

The employed technologies will allow the implementation of flexible automated finishing solutions both for finishing as well as quality control. Thus, lead time, waste and errors will be reduced and control & finishing approaches tailored to the specific design on a universal multi-operation robotic cell that will augment high precision machining operations.

The finishing process in the robotic cell will allow that most suitable metrology solutions can be used not only for quality control but also for fast ramp-up of the flexible cell. The use case will allow that different control dimensional solutions (visual, touch, continuous, 3D scanning) and high precision instrumentation solutions (robot, bridge, in-line, CMM, manual arms) can be seamlessly connected over universal interfaces and operated by networked digital twins that collaborate for a common mission function.

A Staubli Robot TX200 robot controlled by a Siemens 840D CNC together with a fixed table on which is placed a controlled turntable that adds 2 additional axes, compose the robotic cell.

The thesis is developed for the European project MODULAR 4R: Industrial Manufacturing strategies for distributed control and resilient, rapidly responsive and reconfigurable supply chains (MU-MGEP). The duration is 01/01/2023 - 30/06/2026 (3.5 years) where MU-MGEP is one of the partners.
- **Position details**
- The student will be placed mainly in Mondragon with some placements in the company NECO.
- Researcher profile: First Stage Researcher (R1).
- Research field: Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, High Performance Machining
- Type of contract: Temporary - 36 months.
- Job status: Full time
- Hours per week: 40
- Phone: +34934794700
- Application deadline: 28th February 2023
- Envisaged job starting date: 1st April 2023

**Requirements**:

- Education level: Applicants will hold a Master Degree in Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering (especially cutting processes) or equivalent.
- Other skills and experience (essential or desirable):

- Experience in Robotics (desirable)
- Experience in CAM (desirable)
- Experience in Metrology (desirable)
- Experience in Mass Finishing processes such as drag finishing (desirable)
- Required languages: Excellent English - writing and speaking (essential) C1