Progressive and Compound Forming for Producing Plunger-Typed Microparts by Using Sheet Metal

Abstract

The plunger part in temporary electronic connectors is traditionally fabricated by micromachining. Progressive forming of microparts by directly using sheet metals is developed and proven to be an efficient microforming process to overcome some intrinsic drawback in realization of mass production of microparts. By employing this unique micromanufacturing process, an efficient approach with progressive microforming is developed to fabricate plunger-shaped microparts. In this endeavor, a progressive forming system for making microplungers using extrusion and blanking operations is developed, and the grain size effect affected deformation behaviors and of surface qualities of the microformed parts are studied. The knowledge for fabrication of plunger-shaped microparts via progressive microforming is developed, and the in-depth understanding and insight into the deformation behaviors and tailoring the product quality and properties will facilitate the design and development of the forming process by using this unique microforming approach.

Geometrical and microstructural size effects in meso-/micro-scaled progressive forming by directly using metal wires

“…To solve the aforementioned problems and further improve the production rate and e ciency of meso-/micro-forming in producing meso/micro-scaled parts with multi-features or complex structures, the progressive meso-/micro-forming technology has been developed and employed in industrial production [17][18][19]. In the progressive meso-/micro-forming process, the term 'progressive' indicates that two or more individual work stations are involved, and different forming operations are performed as the part is transported from station to station [20,21].…”