Manufacturing Miniature Products by Micro-grinding: A Review

Abstract

Demand for complex structures and miniature features, especially on hard and brittle materials with a required surface finish, urges a significant advancement of manufacturing technology. In the recent years, a number of micro-manufacturing processes have been developed to produce such miniature and complex structures. Micro-grinding is one such process that has been proved optimal thanks to its ability to produce micro-features with higher surface finish. In this study, we review the basic mechanism of micro-grinding, the development of micro-grinding tools, micro-grinding of different materials, effect of cutting fluids and most importantly modeling and simulation of the micro-grinding process. Suggested future research of this topic will cover application of the method to new materials as well as use of more environmentally friendly cutting fluids.