Process Characterization and Material Flow in Microforming at Elevated Temperatures

✍ Scribed by Emil Egerer; Ulf Engel

• Publisher: Society of Manufacturing Engineers
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 132 KB
• Volume: 6
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1526-6125
• DOI: 10.1016/s1526-6125(04)70054-7

✦ Synopsis

The application of metal forming to the manufacturing of microparts is a very interesting technology with several advantages, but the use of the technology is still not widespread. This is due to the fact that the know-how of conventional forming cannot be simply transferred to the micro scale because of so-called size effects. One size-effect problem can be found in grain constellation, which affects the forming result and may be different for each micropart. Among other effects, these size effects result in a significant increase of scatter and forming behavior that is difficult to be predicted exactly. One possibility to counteract the observed inhomogeneous material character is to perform the process at elevated temperatures. Results gained by upsetting and backward can extrusion show that temperature influences the forming result, tending to homogenize the material flow. Further, temperature also leads to a reduced scatter of process parameters such as the force-stroke characteristic. Overall, this study indicates that, in microforming, the forming result can be improved by using an elevated process temperature.