This conference is based on a series of mini-symposia, including a mini-symposium on) "Nano-structured materials and microforming". As in the past, one of the objectives of this mini-symposium is to get together the apparently different topics of nano-structured materials (including ultrafine grained and nanocrystalline materials) and microforming (including sheet and …

COMPOLIGHT = "Rapid manufacturing of lightweight metal components:"

4M Association members Sitex45 and TNO are partners in the above FP7 project which aims to develop processes and methods which improve the design and manufacturing of three types of lightweight metal components:

• Parts with interior canals,
• Parts with cavities,
• Porous parts.

If …

The 14th ESAFORM conference will be held on April 27-29, 2011, hosted by Queen´s University, Belfast, Northern Ireland.

This conference is based on a series of mini-symposia, including a mini-symposium on "Nano-structured materials and microforming". As in the past, one of the objectives of this mini-symposium is to get …

Technology suitable for both serial and small quantity production

Microturning is a method for producing micropins, but it is more difficult to realize other applications. The reason for this is the deformation of the workpiece. This is similar to the case of the microendmilling, however the workpiece in micro turning …

Technology suitable for both serial and small quantity production

Microdrilling is characterized not just by small drills but also a method for precise rotation of the microdrill and a special drilling cycle. In addition, the walls of a microdrilled hole are among the smoothest surfaces produced by conventional processes. This …

In the column to the right you will find useful information about the processing of metals.

Below you will find recent posts on the 4M Association which are considered to be of interest to the Metals Interest Group.

← Interest Groups

On November 23rd, 2010 the Chair of Manufacturing Technology will host the workshop on microforming in Erlangen/Germany.

Founded in 2002, the workshop will be organised for the fifth time to provide a forum for industry and academia for the exchange of knowledge, information, experience and results as well as …

Technology suitable for small quantity production

Laser micromachining removes material in a layer-by-layer fashion. It is an ablation operation causing vaporisation of material as a result of interaction between a laser beam and the workpiece being machined. The removal of material during laser ablation is affected by the characteristics of …

Technology suitable for both serial and small quantity production

In industrial application, micro bending processes are frequently used in case of spring, clamp or lead frame production. Considering the characteristics of this process, namely part dimension being close to sheet thickness, conventional FE-simulation programs, which assume plain strain condition in …

Technology suitable for both serial and small quantity production

Since the most relevant parameters in forming processes describing the material behaviour are the flow stress and the flow curve, it is necessary to perform scaled standard tests to obtain these parameters valid at microscale. Carrying out tensile tests using CuZn15 …

Technology suitable for both serial and small quantity production

Resistance welding (together with related resistance soldering processes) utilizes an applied forging pressure and heat generated by an electric current thought the workpiece. Resistance welding combines a wide variety of techniques (spot, seam, butt, projection welding), but the most used is …

Technology suitable for both serial and small quantity production

Rolling is a fabrication process in which the metal is passed through a pair of rolls. There are two types of rolling process, flat and profile rolling. In flat rolling the final shapes of the product are foil (thickness less than …

Technology suitable for both serial and small quantity production

EDM is basically a thermal process in which the material is removed by the action of electric sparks between two electrodes made of conductive materials: part-electrode and tool-electrode. The separation space between both electrodes (gap) where the spark takes place is …

Technology suitable for both serial and small quantity production

The application of this process is not properly to produce microparts, but to produce smooth and curved optical surfaces. It uses a ductile grinding machine tool with electrolytic in-line dressing (ELID). Current highly accurate ELID processing is only applicable to flat …

Technology suitable small quantity production

Physical Vapour Deposition (PVD) for micromachining of metal is mainly done by sputtering. It consists on the application of metal layers of thickness between 25 nm to 5 microns. Metals like Cu, Al, Ti, Cr, and oxides Al2O3 are the most common ones. It is …

Technology suitable for both serial and small quantity production

As it is defined at conventional length scale, forging processes are usually applied at a specimen temperature of above the recrystallisation temperature. A reduction of the specimen size down to micro scale is always subjected to a significant change in the …

Technology suitable for both serial and small quantity production

Laser micro welding is a process to realize a precise weld joints with small distortion on small and tiny metal or plastic parts in the range of micrometers and millimeters size. The principle of laser welding is based on the heating …

Technology suitable small quantity production

Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is a chemical process for depositing thin films of various materials. In a typical CVD process the substrate is exposed to one or more volatile precursors, which react and/or decompose on the substrate surface to produce the desired deposit. Frequently …

Technology suitable for both serial and small quantity production

Deep drawing is a process frequently used at conventional length scale. In order to produce e.g. cups with a diameter of a few millimeters or below, some specifics have to be regarded. As it has been shown, there is a …

Technology suitable for both serial and small quantity production

Basic investigations on the effects of miniaturization on the blanking process have been first performed by Kals. It has been shown that the normalized forming force is constant while scaling down sheet thickness due to a lack of free surface. When …

Technology suitable for both serial and small quantity production

Ultrasonic welding is a solid-state welding process in which consolidation of joining partners is achieved by pressure and friction energy. The components to be welded are clamped between the support bases and tip (sonotrode). The sonotrode is vibrated at a frequency …

Technology suitable for both serial and small quantity production

Studies concerning coining aluminium sheet metal have been performed by Ike and Plancak [23]. Using dies with hole diameters from 0.05 to 1.6 mm, half hard commercially-pure aluminium of 2 mm in thickness and 30 mm in diameter, coining …

Technology suitable for small quantity production

The use of a Laser in forming technology enables the prototype production of freeform sheet metal parts without using any solid tool. The laser beam is applied to a workpiece where the sheet is locally heated. After heating two possible mechanisms appear in dependency …

Technology suitable for small quantity production Ultraviolet lithography is a technology which involves surface cleaning, photoresist coating by spin-coating, spraying or dip-coating, exposing to UV radiation, developing and isotropic or anisotropic wet-etching of metals and semiconductors or dry-etching (anisotropic etching with verticallity of 89º, maximum aspect ratio in the order …

Technology suitable for both serial and small quantity production

Fly cutting is basically a method for cutting grooves. When multiple grooves are cut in different directions, the remaining part can form microconvex shapes such as rectangular columns. Compared to pin making by turning, this method is advantageous in that thin …

Technology suitable for small quantity production

The LIGA technology comprises the processes of X-ray lithography, electroforming and moulding. The process combines photoetching and electrical plating. In the first step, a deep etching pattern is made in a photoresist after exposure to synchrotron radiation (SR) through a patterned mask. In the …

For special applications diamond turning and milling processes applying monocrystalline diamond tools may not be useful due to their geometric and kinematic limitations. Therefore, diamond contour boring has been developed for the manufactured of micro structured optical molds [A_1].

[A_1] Metal cutting in microstructures, E. Brinksmeier, O. Riemer, Multi-material Micro …

Technology suitable for small quantity production

In this case it is necessary to machine the inverted features in a material that is easy to dissolve (Al7075 or Al6063), and then produce the mould by depositing nickel or copper on the surface until a suitable thickness has been reached. Since the …

The micro-cutting of steel with tungsten carbide tools can meet many of the demands of miniaturised components. A prerequisite for a stable machining process is a homogeneous, hard workpiece material with no internal stresses. The achievable surface roughness is between Rz = 0.5 μm and 1 μm. The most important …

Micro diamond grinding has some constraints in wheel size and shape that limits achievable quality and geometry of micro parts and structured surfaces. Moreover, difficulty in grinding tool-making and preparation including truing and dressing also hampers the widespread application of diamond grinding into micro fabrication significantly. In [1], recently some …

In diamond milling mainly two different types of processes for the generation of microstructures can be found, i.e. circumferential milling, so called fly-cutting, and ball-end milling. Before micro structuring, the relative position of workpiece and diamond tool have to be known inside the machine tool with respect to each …

Technology suitable for both serial and small quantity production

Microgrinding is a material removal technique by means of mechanical force used for machining pins and grooves with small dimensions and for obtaining flat surfaces with very fine finishing. The main reason for this is that the chip size in microgrinding …

Technology suitable for small quantity production

Micro ultrasonic machining (MUSM) is a method derived from conventional ultrasonic machining, in which a tool and free abrasives are used. The tool that is vibrated at ultrasonic frequency drives the abrasive to create a brittle breakage on the workpiece surface. The shape and …

Technology suitable small quantity production

Electro Chemical Machining (ECM) is a method of working extremely hard materials or materials that are difficult to machine cleanly using conventional methods. It is limited, however, to electrically conductive materials. ECM can cut small or odd-shaped angles, intricate contours or cavities in extremely hard …

Technology suitable for small quantity production

ECF is a new technique to machine hard materials and other electrochemically active materials. The tool movements are similar to conventional milling machines. Nevertheless ECF is an electrochemical process, hence both workpiece and tool are submerged in an electrolyte and held at a constant …

Technology suitable for both serial and small quantity production

In Injection molding the polymer material is heated and melted and then forced into the tool cavity using high pressure. Usually the tool temperature is relatively low compared to the material. Metal injection molding is a recently developed method, where a …

• Classification
• Mechanical force
• Melting,vaporization,ablation
• Dissolution
• Solidification
• Recomposition
• Sintering
• LIGA

• Bending
• Blanking
• Cold Forging
• Deep drawing
• ECF
• Embossing
• Fly Cutting
• Forging
• Microdrilling
• Microgrinding
• Micromilling
• Microturning
• Rolling
• Ultrasonic Machining
• Ultrasonic Welding

Technology suitable for both serial and small quantity production

Perhaps the most versatile direct machining process in conventional manufacturing is milling. This would also seem logical at the microscale. Peripheral end-milling and slot milling present the most severe machining environment of any of the micromechanical processes.

The geometry of a …

• Microcasting/Injection Molding

Technology suitable small quantity production

Term “bonding” include two different processes: diffusion bonding and electrostatic bonding. Diffusion bonding can be performed in solid and liquid state and is based on the diffusion of materials in each other that are assisted by uniform application of heat and pressure on the parts …

• Bonding
• Chemical vapor deposition
• Electro Discharge Machining
• Electrolytic in-line dressing
• Laser Micromachining
• Laser Welding/Soldering
• Laser bending
• Physical Vapour Deposition
• Resistance Welding/Soldering

• Electro Chemical Machining
• Lithography and Etching

• Electroforming
• Electroplating