Kuan-Ming Li

Assistant Professor

Education

Ph.D., Georgia Institute of Technology, USA, 2006

M.S., National Taiwan University, 1997

B.S., National Taiwan University, 1995

Research Areas

Manufacturing: Near-dry machining, modeling, and monitoring of manufacturing processes.

Background

Dr. Li began at NTU in 2010 as an Assistant Professor. Prior, from 2007 to 2010, he was an Assistant Professor at National Sun Yat-sen University.

Research

Dr. Li’s research focuses on the fundamental problems of manufacturing theories, especially in metal cutting mechanics, that have bearing problems in modeling, monitoring and optimization of manufacturing processes. He is interested in the development of physical understanding of manufacturing technology with practical industry applications. The techniques used in his work include theory, computation, and experiment. Recently, Dr. Li has completed projects on the topics of near-dry machining and mechanical micro-machining.

In the area of near-dry machining, research focuses on establishing the modeling of tool life and environmental impact in near-dry turning. The study establishes analytical models for estimating cutting temperature, cutting forces, and tool life in near-dry turning. The characteristics of oil mist in terms of particulate size and concentration are analytically modeled concerning cutting conditions, fluid material properties, and fluid application parameters.

In the area of mechanical micro-machining, one of the research topics is to survey the applications of minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) in micro-milling. Dr. Li and his research group have found that the application of MQL in micromachining will significantly improve the cutting performance, especially the tool life. Another research topic is vibration-assisted grinding. It is found that with the aid of small amplitude of vibration, the surface roughness of the workpiece is significantly improved. Some of the machined surfaces with vibration-assisted grinding even achieve the near-mirrored surface. However, if the machine tool structure is not properly designed, the surface finish would deteriorate under vibration-assisted machining due to chatter.

Recently, he has begun interested in the sensor-assisted machining. The online monitoring methods, with a focus on cutting temperature monitoring as a beginning, will be developed. The research targets at the multi-sensor monitoring. This idea is to imitate the human behavior of experienced technicians in manufacturing processes and to achieve both manufacturing and quality assurance at the same time.