• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.37 no.12
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• pp.1159-1165
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• 2013

Powder blasting, which is an efficient micromachining method for glass, silicon, and ceramics, has a critical disadvantage in that the surface finish is poor owing to the brittle fracture of materials. Low-pressure waterjet machining can be applied to smoothen the rough surface inside the blasted structure. In this study, the surface roughness and sectional dimension of micro-channels are observed during the repetitive application of a waterjet to blasted micro-channels. The asperities and subsurface cracks created by blasting are removed by waterjet machining. Along with the surface roughness, it is found that the sectional dimension increases and the edges of the finished micro-channel become slightly round. Finally, a microfluidic chip is machined by the blasting-waterjet process and a transparent microfluidic channel is obtained efficiently.