Micro-electrical discharge machining (micro-EDM) is a good candidate for processing micro-hole arrays, which are critical features of micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), diesel injector nozzles, inkjet printheads and turbine blades, etc. In this study, the wire vibration of the wire electro-discharge grinding (WEDG) system has been analyzed theoretically, and, accordingly, an improved WEDG method was developed to fabricate micron-scale diameter and high-aspect-ratio microelectrodes for the in-process micro-EDM of hole array with hole diameter smaller than 20 μm. The improved method has a new feature of a positioning device to address the wire vibration problem, and thus to enhance microelectrodes fabrication precision. Using this method, 14 μm diameter microelectrodes with less than 0.4 μm deviation and an aspect ratio of 142, which is the largest aspect ratio ever reported in the literature, were successfully fabricated. These microelectrodes were then used to in-process micro-EDM of hole array in stainless steel. The effects of applied voltage, current and pulse frequency on hole dimensional accuracy and microelectrode wear were investigated. The optimal processing parameters were selected using response–surface experiments. To improve machining accuracy, an in-process touch-measurement compensation strategy was applied to reduce the cumulative compensation error of the micro-EDM process. Using such a system, micro-hole array (2 × 80) with average entrance diameter 18.91 μm and average exit diameter 17.65 μm were produced in 50 μm thickness stainless steel sheets, and standard deviations of hole entrance and exit sides of 0.44 and 0.38 μm, respectively, were achieved.

Surface structures with micro-grooves have been reported to be an effective way for improving the performance of metallic components. Through-mask electrochemical micromachining (TMEMM) is a promising process for fabricating micro-grooves. Due to the isotropic nature of metal dissolution, the dissolution of a workpiece occurs both along the width and depth. Overcut is generated inevitably with increasing depth, which makes it difficult to enhance machining localization. In this paper, a method of electrochemical machining using a conductive masked porous cathode and jet electrolyte supply is proposed to generate micro-grooves with high machining localization. In this configuration, the conductive mask is directly attached to the workpiece, thereby replacing the traditional insulated mask. This helps in achieving a reduction in overcut and an improvement in machining localization. Moreover, a metallic nozzle is introduced to supply a jetted electrolyte in the machining region with enhanced mass transfer via a porous cathode. The simulation and experimental results indicate that as compared with an insulated mask, the use of a conductive mask weakens the electric field intensity on both sides of machining region, which is helpful to reduce overcut and enhance machining localization. The effect of electrolyte pressure is investigated for this process configuration, and it has been observed that high electrolyte pressure enhances the mass transfer and improves the machining quality. In addition, as the pulse duty cycle is decreased, the dimensional standard deviation and roughness of the fabricated micro-groove are improved. The results suggest the feasibility and reliability of the proposed method.

Electrochemical discharge machining (ECDM) is a well-known process for machining of particulate reinforced metal matrix composites (MMCs). However, ECDM process suffers several drawbacks such as the lower material removal rate (MRR), high risks of tool wear rate (TWR) and relatively poor surface quality, etc. This study proposes a kind of electrochemical discharge grinding machining (ECDGM) method which employs a special shaped tool electrode. During the process, not only the can the hybrid action of electrochemical dissolution, spark erosion, and abrasive grinding improve the performance of machining MMCs, but also the special shaped of the tool electrode can be used to discharge the machined debris. And thus a higher machining efficiency and lower TWR can be obtained. The performance of developed process was conducted on machining of SiC particulate reinforced aluminum workpiece. The role of peak curre+nt, pulse duration, duty cycle, rotary speed and abrasive grit size has been investigated on MMR and TWR using the nonabrasive round electrode, abrasive round electrode, and abrasive shaped electrode respectively. The experimental results showed that using the shaped abrasive electrode for machining MMCs can achieve a higher MRR and lower TWR, as compared to the non-abrasive round electrode, abrasive round electrode. Besides, the orthogonal method was employed to analyze the relative importance of the machining parameters on MRR and TWR, it has been observed that MRR is affected by the processing parameters following the order of rotary speed > peak current > duty cycle > pulse duration, and TWR is following the order of peak current > duty cycle > pulse duration > rotary speed.

Micro-injection molding has attracted a wide range of research interests to fabricate polymer products with nanostructures for its advantages of cheap and fast production. The heat transfer between the polymer and the mold insert is important to the performance of products. In this study, the interface thermal resistance (ITR) between the polypropylene (PP) layer and the nickel (Ni) mold insert layer in micro-injection molding was studied by using the method of non-equilibrium molecular dynamics (NEMD) simulation. The relationships among the ITR, the temperature, the packing pressure, the interface morphology, and the interface interaction were investigated. The simulation results showed that the ITR decreased obviously with the increase of the temperature, the packing pressure and the interface interaction. Both rectangle and triangle interface morphologies could enhance the heat transfer compared with the smooth interface. Moreover, the ITR of triangle interface was higher than that of rectangle interface. Based on the analysis of phonon density of states (DOS) for PP-Ni system, it was found that the mismatch between the phonon DOS of the PP atoms and Ni atoms was the main cause of the interface resistance. The frequency distribution of phonon DOS also affected the interface resistance.