• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
• /
• v.12 no.3
• /
• pp.28-35
• /
• 2013

Micro electrical discharge machining (EDM) as a non-contact machining process is very effective for micromachining with a thin electrode because of its low machining reaction force. The micro-electrode machining device has the advantage of maintaining high precision through the whole processes and uses a feeding wire in the thin electrode tool manufacturing process. This study describes the design and evaluation of a micro-electrode machining device using optical photo-interrupter. The electrode was fabricated by reverse electrical discharge machining. The performance of designed system was evaluated to measure tension force according to feed speed of wire. This system for micro electrode fabrication proves the feasibility in the micro-EDM process of the micro holes and parts for industrial applications.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
• /
• v.19 no.6
• /
• pp.352-356
• /
• 2010

This paper was designed to fabricate the micro-spur gear by the LIGA and hybrid powder extrusion process. It is important to manufacture a micro-die with a high aspect ratio and determine appropriate extrusion conditions for a microforming. Ni has been used to fabricate micro-dies. LIGA process was capable to produce micro-extrusion dies with close tolerance, longer bearing length and adequate surface quality. Superplastic Al-78Zn powders have the great advantage in achieving deformation under low stresses and exhibiting good micro-formability with average strain rate raging from $10^{-3}$ to $10^{-2} s^{-1}$ and constant temperature ranging from 503 to 563K. Al-78Zn powders were compacted into a cylindrical shape ($\Phi3\times$h10mm) under compressive force of 10kN and, subsequently, the compacted powders were extruded by the hybrid powder extrusion process controlling of the temperature holing time for a improvement on formability of Al-22Zn powder. Micro-extrusion has succeeded in forming micro-gear shafts.

• International Journal of Precision Engineering and Manufacturing
• /
• v.7 no.3
• /
• pp.56-59
• /
• 2006

UV laser micromachining is generally used to create microstructures for micro-products through a sequence of lithography-based photo-patterning steps. However, the micromachining process is not suitable for rapid realization of complex 3D micro-products because it depends on worker experience. In addition, the cost and time required to make many masks are excessive. In this paper, a more effective and rapid micro-manufacturing process, which was developed based on laser micromachining, is proposed for fabricating micro-products directly using UV laser ablation and phase-change filling. The filling process is useful for holding the micro-products during the ablation step. The proposed rapid micro-manufacturing process was demonstrated experimentally by fabricating 3D micro-products from functional UV-sensitive polymers using 3D CAD data.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
• /
• v.22 no.11 s.176
• /
• pp.196-201
• /
• 2005

UV laser micromachining are generally used to create microstructures for micro product through a sequence of lithography-based photopatterning steps. However, the micromachining process is not suitable for the rapid realization of complex 3D micro product because it depends on worker experiences, excessive cost and time to make many masks. In this paper, the more effective micro rapid manufacturing process, which is developed upon the base of laser micromachining, is proposed to fabricate micro products directly using UV laser ablation and phase change filling. The filling process is useful to hold the micro product during the next ablation step. The proposed micro rapid manufacturing process is also proven experimentally that enables to fabricate the 3D micro products of UV sensitive polymer from 3D CAD data to functional micro parts.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
• /
• 2002.05a
• /
• pp.508-511
• /
• 2002

With increasing the needs for micro and precision parts, micro machining technology using micro tools has been studied to fabricate a small part with high density such as electronics, optics, communications, and medicine industry more than before. Though these micro tools have developed rapidly, it is difficult to apply them to micro fabrication technologies, because of the inherent manufacturing. In this study, micro tools(wc) to produce micro structures and parts were manufactured by cylindrical grinding machine employing ELID(Electrolytic In-process Dressing) technique and good dimensional accuracy was achieved. Furthermore we researched the characteristics of machining on the micro drilling using micro drills and manufactured micro tools. Finally it is confirmed that manufactured micro tools can be used for micro machining.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
• /
• v.23 no.10
• /
• pp.52-59
• /
• 2006

Micro electrical discharge machining (EDM) and micro electrochemical machining (ECM) were studied for the fabrication of micro structures. Micro EDM has been used to machine micro structures from metals. However, since the tool wear is inevitable during the machining, the tool wear is drawback for the precision machining. Micro ECM is also used for micro machining and produces better surface quality than that of micro EDM. Moreover, since tool electrodes are not worn out, micro ECM is suitable for the precision micro machining. However, the machining rate is lower than that of micro EDM. In this paper, therefore, the hybrid machining process which uses micro EDM as roughing and micro ECM as finishing is introduced. By using this hybrid machining, a hemisphere with $100\;{\mu}m$ radius was fabricated and the efficiency of the process was investigated experimentally.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Machine Tool Engineers
• /
• v.16 no.6
• /
• pp.168-174
• /
• 2007

A ceramic glass mold was developed for micro hot-embossing and replicated polymer parts are fabricated. The glass-ceramic micro mold could be fabricated with a laser process and a wet etching process and the fabrication time could be saved a lot. Various polymer micro structures can be obtained by hot-embossing. The process parameters such as ho-embossing temperatures or pressures were investigated and optimized. This process can be applied for fabrication of micro structures for flip-chips or micro fluidic channels for bio-engineering. The advantages and disadvantages of this process are discussed, too.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
• /
• 2004.10a
• /
• pp.294-297
• /
• 2004

RTP(Rapid Thermal Pressing) is to fabricate desired pattern on polymer substrate by pressing patterned mold against the substrate heated around glass transition temperature. For a successful RTP process, the whole process including heating, molding, cooling and demolding should be conducted 'rapidly' as possible. As the RTP process is effective in replicating patterns on flat large surface without causing shape distortion after cooling, it is being widely used for fabricating various micro/bio application components, especially with channel-type microstructures on surface. This investigation finally aims to develop a RTP process machine for mass-producing micro/bio application components. As a first step for that purpose, we intended to examine the technological difficulties for realizing mass production by RTP process. Therefore, in the current paper, 4 kinds of RTP machines were examined and then the RTP process was conducted experimentally for PMMA film by using one of the machines, HEX 03. The micro-patterned molds used for RTP experiment was fabricated from silicon wafer by semi-conduct process. The replicated micro patterns on PMMA films were examined using SEM and the causes of defect observed in the replicated patterns were discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
• /
• v.4 no.4
• /
• pp.7-13
• /
• 2005

In the case of fabricating micro pole structures such as column, square-pole and gear shaft by the micro end-milling process, it can be useful in the fields of industry, for example, micro parts, electrode for electrical discharge machining and micro mold for injection molding. In this study, machining factors and the process were analyzed. Machining experiments of various micro pole configurations were performed. Analysis of the change and effect of the cutting force according to the machining conditions was carried out. An analytical study of the deformation of the micro pole caused cutting conditions and cutting force through the finite element method and ANSYS program was carried out. As a result, this research presented a method of fabricating the column pole of below $100{\mu}m$ diameter with high aspect ratio by using micro end-milling process, and based on that, a method of fabricating a variety of applicable structures. Also the minimum size of the pole capable of fabricating through theory and experiment were demonstrated.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
• /
• 2003.06a
• /
• pp.26-29
• /
• 2003

UV laser micromachining are generally used to create microstructures for micro product through a sequence of lithography-based photopatterning steps. However, the micromachining process is not suitable for the rapid realization of complex microscale 3D product because it depends on worker experiences, excessive cost and time to make many masks. In this paper, the more effective micro rapid manufacturing process, which is developed upon the base of laser micromachining. is proposed to fabricate micro products directly using UV laser ablation and phase change filling. The filling process is useful to hold the micro product during the next ablation step. The proposed micro rapid manufacturing process is also proven experimentally that enables to fabricate the 3D microscale products of UV sensitive polymer from 3D CAD data to functional micro parts.