Contact: Mike Richardson
A specialized research expertise is taking two Mississippi State University mechanical engineers to the United Kingdom.
Emmanuel I. Agba and John T. Berry begin a joint research project this month with three United Kingdom universities. Agba is an assistant professor, while Berry holds the title of Edward P. Coleman Professor for Mechanical Engineering.
They were invited by Southampton Institute to discuss a new technology involving high speed machining (HSM).
In addition, Agba will visit the University of Birmingham to meet with other researchers and evaluate the high speed machining process as it relates to hardened die steels. Berry, a University of Birmingham alumnus, will present a research paper and chair a technology conference session at Sheffield University.
Berry said that their efforts will "further explore the new developments in the machining use of high speed cutting processes, while also assessing the economic advantages associated with this new technology."
Agba said another goal "is to establish sound contacts and networks with our European colleagues to conduct future joint research operations, as well as to bring back new technical processes that will benefit Mississippi industry."
The two are the first researchers in the Southeast to address the effects of HSM and how it can be incorporated into the manufacturing of consumer goods.
While preliminary experiments have been conducted in other areas of the country, mainly in California and Northeastern industrial centers, the United States remains far behind other nations in the exploration of this new area of study, the two said. The United Kingdom, Germany and Japan have performed extensive analyses of the HSM process, they added.
Mississippi State's mechanical engineering department is considering similar joint efforts with universities in Japan and Germany. "The department realizes that there are many advantages in global research of new and emerging technologies," Agba said.
"Also, Dean Wayne Bennett has supported such international endeavors and is very proactive in the area of information sharing," he added.