Experimental investigation on micromilling of oxygen-free, high-conductivity copper using tungsten carbide, chemistry vapour deposition, and single-crystal diamond micro tools

Abstract

Insufficient experimental data from various micro tools limit industrial application of the micromilling process. This paper presents an experimental comparative investigation into micromilling of oxygen-free, high-conductivity copper using tungsten carbide (WC), chemistry vapour deposition (CVD) diamond, and single-crystal diamond micromilling tools at a uniform 0.4 mm diameter. The experiments were carried out on an ultra-precision micromilling machine that features high dynamic accurate performance, so that the dynamic effect of the machine tool itself on the cutting process can be reduced to a minimum. Micromachined surface roughness and burr height were characterized using white light interferometry, a scanning electron microscope (SEM), and a precision surface profiler. The influence of variation of cutting parameters, including cutting speeds, feedrate, and axial depth of cut, on surface roughness and burr formation were analysed. The experimental results show that there exists an optimum feedrate at which best surface roughness can be achieved. Optical quality surface roughness can be achieved with CVD and natural diamond tools by carefully selecting machining conditions, and surface roughness, R a , of the order of 10 nm can also be obtained when using micromilling using WC tools on the precision micromilling machine.

An experimental investigation on micro machining of fine-grained graphite

“…Micro milling, as a newly emerged micro machining process, has attracted lots of attentions from academia and industries in the last two decades. The research on micro milling have focused on various applications and involved many engineering materials, including metals such as aluminum [7][8][9], copper [9][10][11][12], Titanium alloys [13,14] and steels [15,16]; ceramics like tungsten carbides [17,18], silicon [19][20][21], glass [22,23], polymers [24][25], and composites [26]. However, to our knowledge, there are no publications available dedicated to micro-machinability of graphite material in the open literature.…”

Optimization of machining parameters during micro-milling of Ti6Al4V titanium alloy and Inconel 718 materials using Taguchi method

“…However, depth of cut had negligible influence on the surface roughness, and this result was also found in other studies. 17,29 It was concluded that spindle speed and feed rate had statistical and physical significance on surface roughness.…”

Micro Milling

“…In addition, a high maximum cutting speed is necessary to achieve optimum cutting performance and high material removal rates over a useful component size range so as to maintain acceptable productivity. The overall footprint including the periphery is only about 1m 2 and its aerostatic bearing spindle is capable of producing speed up to 200 000 rpm [20]. Furthermore, multi-axis configurations of machines are also important for ensuring process flexibility and forming accuracy in machining freeform components.…”

“…Huo et al [20] indicated that feed rate has significantly influence on surface roughness and burr height whereas spindle speed has only a slight effect. Huo et al [20] indicated that feed rate has significantly influence on surface roughness and burr height whereas spindle speed has only a slight effect.…”