Micromilling strategies for machining thin features

Abstract

Micromilling of metal structures with ‘thin’ features represents a major challenge towards broadening the use of this technology in a range of microengineering applications, for example in producing multi-channel microstructures, housing for mechanical microdevices, and surgical instruments. The most common thin features seen in microengineering products are ribs and webs. This research identifies the main factors affecting the reliability of micromilling technology when employed for the machining of microcomponents incorporating thin features. The general principles that should be followed in designing machining strategies for such features are discussed in this article. Taking these general principles into account, new strategies are proposed to reduce the negative effects of identified factors on part quality and, at the same time, to overcome some of the problems associated with the use of conventional machining strategies for micromilling of ribs and webs. To implement and verify them, initially the milling operations were programmed manually, and then a special CAM module was developed for their automatic generation. Finally, this article reports the validation of the proposed strategies for machining thin features, which was carried out on a specially designed test part.