United States Energy Secretary watches Software for Ceramic Griding

Guy R. Hughes, President and founder of Controlink Systems LLC (shown in center of picture below) watches as Victor J. Tennery explains to Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary how the Process Monitoring Software that Guy developed is being used at Oak Ridge National Lab (ORNL) to study the grinding of ceramic materials at the High Temperature Materials Lab (HTML).

The software collects grinding forces, horsepower, vibration, acoustic emission, and other parameters correlated to grinding process quality and efficiency. It is used to establish recommended grinding parameters and practices for surface, creep, cylindrical, and centerless grinding of ceramic materials. The influence of grinding force magnitudes on fatigue and overall strength properties of the finished ceramic components was also studied.