The technology to develop a localized jig center, a machining center with the highest precision, was selected as the best research achievement of 2023 by the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (President Ryu Seok-hyun).

The Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials selected the jig center localization technology of Oh Jeong-seok, head of the Ultra-Precision Equipment Research Lab of the Advanced Production Equipment Research Department, as the best research achievement in 2023 and presented the award at the 'Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials 47th Anniversary Celebration' on December 20.

Director Jeong-Seok Oh of the Ultra-Precision Equipment Research Lab was recognized for his contributions to the development and demonstration of a high-precision jig center for the first time in Korea through joint research with DN Solutions, a domestic machine tool manufacturer, and to the advancement and commercialization of industrial technology related to machine tools and precision measurement through corporate collaboration and technology transfer.

The localization technology of the jig center was selected as the '2020 Small and Medium Business Administration's Best Practice', the '2023 Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy's R&D Excellence in the Machinery and Equipment Robot Sector', and was also honored with being selected as the Best Research Achievement of the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials this year.

The jig center is a top-precision machining center that performs various precision processing through automatic tool exchange while maintaining the excellent precision of the jig borer used to accurately process holes. It has approximately five times the precision and approximately twice the rigidity of a general machining center.

The Jig Borer was first introduced in 1921 for the manufacture of watch parts. It is the first machine tool developed to machine precise holes (diameter and distance between holes) with outstanding precision.

The jig center, which is used for the final finishing processing of core parts of high-precision machinery, has a global market size of approximately KRW 260 billion, and is an item developed only in Germany, Switzerland, and Japan. Korea has been importing all of it from Japan (Yasda, Mitsui Seiki) at an average annual value of approximately KRW 12 billion.

The jig center developed by the research team led by Director Oh Jeong-seok has shown the same level of processing precision as advanced Japanese products in the verification results of demand companies, and has shown excellent performance especially in the long-term precision maintenance sector. Currently, a total of five jig centers have been deployed in actual mass production sites and are operating smoothly.

In addition to the jig center, the research team has developed advanced source technologies, such as machine tool digital twin technology that integrates the physical characteristics of equipment, controllers, and machining processes, and precision spatial coordinate measurement technology based on absolute distance measurement developed in collaboration with KAIST. In addition, through technology transfer, the company achieved 100% localization of ultra-precision roll mold processing machines that had previously been entirely dependent on imports, contributing significantly to achieving cumulative sales of approximately KRW 65 billion (including KRW 34 billion in exports).

CEO Oh Jeong-seok said, “I am grateful that we were able to contribute to dramatically improving the development and manufacturing capabilities of domestic high-precision machining centers through the jig center developed with DN Solutions and related researchers,” and “We will make even more efforts to actively develop and commercialize next-generation technologies with large ripple effects through industry-academia-research cooperation.”

Since 1993, the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials has awarded the Best Researcher Award to researchers who have achieved outstanding research results, contributed to the scientific and technological communities and industry, and raised the reputation of the institute.