The expected result of the MICROAB project is Finepart becoming the world leader in the manufacture of machining centers that use an abrasive waterjet for the machining of miniature parts.
The manufacture and use of the machining centres will result in:
• Companies in the aerospace, medical device, electronics, optics, fine mechanics, and other industries using micro abrasive waterjet (MAW) to machine miniature components for new products and devices
• A micromachining capability upon which entrepreneurs and small jobshops can build a business because of the wide range of materials that can be processed and short set up and machining times
• Economic machining of miniature parts in virtually any material with smaller features (cutting jets down to 50 µm diameter), tighter tolerances and with high quality cut surfaces
• The processing of high tech materials that are difficult or uneconomic to process by other methods
• The use of diamond for cutting head wear components will extend abrasive waterjets capabilities to the machining of hard engineering ceramics
• Dynamic control over cutting jet intensity to avoid problems of damage to brittle and composite materials experienced with conventional abrasive waterjets.
Particular benefits for European industry will be:
• The development of a high tech European company (Finepart) that competes in the global machine tool market
• A Company that has European supply and machine tool distributor networks that employee 5 to 7 persons for every Finepart employee.
• A key enabling technology that will be exploited by European companies to manufacture high added value products and remain competitive in world markets – Finepart will indirectly contribute to maintaining and increasing employment in European manufacturing companies.
