William J. Endres

William J. Endres

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  • Richard and Elizabeth Henes Professor (Mechanical Engineering)
  • Senior Capstone Design Program Director
  • Manufacturing/Industrial (MI) Area Director
  • PhD, Mechanical Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • MS, Mechanical Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • BS, Mechanical Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Biography

Dr. Endres received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1992. He is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Michigan Technological University. His primary research interests include fundamental cutting mechanics, machine-tool system dynamics, and mechanistic modeling techniques. He has contributed greatly to the fundamental understanding and analysis of the effects of the blunt edge and wear-land found on most cutting tools. Another significant aspect of his work focuses on analytical machining dynamics, including solutions for vibration level and stability in the presence of multiple/parallel processes, real tooling geometry, periodic time variation, high and ultrahigh speeds, and more realistic machine-tool dynamics. Recent research is addressing the dynamic modeling and manufacture of fixed interfaces, texture-engineered joints and hybrid joints.

Dr. Endres has been honored with various awards, including an NSF CAREER Award in 1998, an Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award in 1999 from the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) and the Blackall Machine Tool and Gauge Award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) in 1997, recognizing his PhD work as a best paper published in the ASME Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering. Dr. Endres has served as a an Associate Editor of the ASME Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering and the Journal of Machining Science and Technology, and is a member of the Scientific Committee of the North American Manufacturing Research Institution of SME (NAMRI/SME).

In addition to teaching and academic research, Dr. Endres is working to transform his research knowledge to commercial products. In 1999, he founded Machining Analysis Technologies, LLC as a basis for his personal efforts to commercialize machining simulation software and the education (short-course) base to support practicing engineers in process planning, diagnostics and tooling selection. By 2004 he recognized a more prevalent market need driven in part by global low-wage competition — dramatic increases in the productivity of capital equipment and the associated high-wage workforce. In response, software development efforts were tabled so he could focus resources on the development of physical process and tooling technologies. In 2004, he founded Endres Machining Innovations, LLC (EMI) and in July 2005, building on two SBIR Phase-I awards and a collaborative development agreement with a private cutting tool company, he established an office and applied R&D lab in the Michigan Tech Enterprise SmartZone. EMI currently employs four engineers and technicians as it provides testing and training services to compliment its technology R&D activities. The R&D efforts aim to commercialize tooling and process technologies that maintain or exceed current tool life at cutting speeds two or more times speeds currently used to machine materials such as titanium, nickel alloys, CGI, hardened steel and metal-matrix composites. Other R&D efforts are addressing off-shoot applications, such as new ways of fabricating molds and dies, producing ultra-thick, hard coatings for general wear applications, and cost-effective manufacturing of high-pressure vehicular hydrogen storage solutions.

Links of Interest

Areas of Expertise

  • Leadership Practice
  • Commercialization Engineering
  • Innovation Engineering
  • Machining Dynamics
  • Cutting Mechanics
  • Manufacturing Processes