Micromilling mechanism : research and realization

Overview & Synopsis

Micromilling technique brings many advantages to the fabrication of micro-sized features. The objectives of this thesis are to investigate the micromilling mechanism for the efficient fabrication of miniaturized products. There are a number of issues that influence micromilling processes : cutting forces, dynamics and stability, chip formation, and machine tools. Several research topics, including Micro Machine Tool (MMT) development, workpiece microstructure influences, micromill tip trajectory investigation, wavy chip formation analysis via FEM-analytical ap- proach, surface roughness prediction based on the neural network and design of experiment are focused in this thesis. Some important results are listed : 1. The metal phase differences in the multi-phase polycrystalline material affect the micromilling process greatly, induce the cutting force variation, and influence the surface generation. 2. The single flute cutting condition always occurs in the micromilling process. The flute angle and feed angle are important to the machining error and chip load distribution. 3. The wavy chip formation mechanism is studied via hybrid analytical-FEM approach. It has been found the chip acquires additional angular acceleration in the segment generation instant. The variations of the tool chip contact length and shear band length are the main reasons of wavy chip segment formation