"DISC MICROTOOL FABRICATION BY ELECTROCHEMICAL MICROMACHINING FOR GENERATION OF MICROFEATURES"

The present invention relates to the fabrication of disc micro tools by electrochemical micromachining (EMM). More particularly, the present invention is directed to system and method of disc microtool fabrication by electrochemical micromachining with novel approach of front end insulation of straight cylindrical tungsten rod during machining, to achieve the disc micro tools of desired dimension i.e. disc diameter, disc height, shank diameter, and shank height, suitable for micro manufacturing applications. Disc microtools have been fabricated at different machining conditions to investigate the influence of applied voltage, pulse frequency, duty ratio, electrolyte concentration and machining time on shank diameter, material removal rate and surface quality at shank surface. Optimum machining parameters have been obtained and disc micro tools of varied sizes having different disc diameters, disc heights, shank diameters and shank heights has been fabricated from supplied tungsten rods of varying diameters by the proposed technique. Disc microtools of different disc heights have been fabricated by regulating the front end insulation height of tool specimen and effects of disc height on machining accuracy are also reported. Disc micro tools with improved surface quality have been fabricated by electrochemical micromachining utilizing the developed EMM setup. The fabricated disc micro tools has been applied for machining of microfeatures like cylindrical hole with reduced taper angle, reverse tapered microhole, taper free microgroove and 3D microstructure with plane surfaces. Also complex microgrooves with different internal features, such as spherical microgroove and stepped microgroove have been machined on SS304 sheet by EMM, utilizing fabricated disc shaped microtool with sidewall insulation. Complex microgrooves with internal features are more suitable in applications like micro thermal devices such as micro coolers, micro heat exchangers in micro reactors and also in micro fluidics because of the increased inner surface area of the microgrooves, thus favoring prospects for wide industrial applications of fabricated disc microtool for micro manufacturing applications.