Printed circuit boards (PCBs) have slots and holes that aid in the assembly of electronic devices. To produce these shapes, advances in manufacturing methods have been made in processes including machining, laser, plasma, and punching. In this study, to evaluate the capability of a micro end mill in the machining of PCBs, cutting forces were measured using a dynamometer under various cutting speed and feed per tooth conditions. Copper-clad laminate (CCL), which is a PCB raw material, was selected as the workpiece to evaluate the machining capabilities of the PCB end mill. The cross-section of a machined slot in a workpiece was observed under a microscope, and the burr height of the cross-section was measured. Finally, the relationship between cutting force and burr height was determined. The cutting force increased with increasing feed per tooth, and the burr height decreased with increasing feed per tooth; thus, it was inversely proportional to the cutting force.
Agent technology can provide a systematic way to design and implement efficiently distributed intelligent manufacturing systems. Multi-agent system has been recognized as a promising paradigm to integrate a number of agents with different functions. In micro machining field many researchers have been studied the machining characteristics since the influence of underlying mechanisms are fundamentally different from macro-scale machining. This paper presents an agent-based micro machining system. To cover the process planning step for micro machining, basic agents such as cutting tool selection, tool-path generation, and machining cost estimation were implemented. To build and integrate these distributed agents, Java Agent Development Framework (JADE) was used. Throughout this system the selection of optimal roughing tool for semi-finishing stage was implemented by providing automated process planner for micro machining to the engineers. Machining data bases were constructed to store the information of materials, tools, and capability of available machine tools. A designed part can be uploaded to the Micro Machining (MM) agent as a Stereo Lithography (STL) format. MM agent can provide process parameters for 3-axis micro milling and tool sequence for cost-optimal machining automatically. Machining Cost Estimation agent can calculate micro machining cost for the designed part. To test the multi-agent system, a surface of micro-surface feature was fabricated with micro end-mills.
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