Mechanical micro-machining

Abstract

As a result of the current trend toward products miniaturization, there is a demand for development in micro-manufacturing technologies in order to have better quality products, and cheaper, more efficient, and effective processes. Miniaturized products and components in the range from a few hundred micrometers to a few micrometers size are becoming common and widely used in daily human life. The micro-products and micro-components are used in many industries especially related with micro-electromechanical, aerospace, medical, environment, biomedical and biochemical industries, and also in the field of chemistry. Many manufacturing methods have been developed to produce these micro-sized products, namely micro electro mechanical system (MEMS) based processes such as dry etching, lithography, electroplating, ultraviolet - lithographie galvanoformung abformung (UV-LiGA), non-conventional based micro-machining such as micro- electron discharge machining (EDM), and mechanical micro-machining. This chapter discusses mechanical micro-machining especially challenges related with this process. Some main challenges are discussed in this chapter such as size effect, microstructures of the materials, surface quality, burr formation, and micro-tools performance. Some solutions are offered in order to solve these challenges.