Micromachining process with ductile tooling

使用延展性模具的微加工工艺

• 批准号: 194501-2008
• 负责人: Curodeau, Alain
• 金额: $ 1.31万
• 依托单位: Université Laval
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2008-01-01 至 2009-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=392514
• 关键词: Micromachining; process; ductile; tooling

The proposed research is about the development of a novel automated manufacturing process designed to replace tedious hand-polishing operations involved in the fabrication procedures of mass production injection molds. Injection molds are expensive pieces of equipment required to produce at reasonable price, any kind of polymer parts contained in a large variety of consumer products such as cars, computers, cell phones, electric tools, toys and others. The main cavity of an injection mold is carved out of a block of tool steel material with a powerful CNC milling machine, followed by secondary manual processes to obtain the desired surface finish. Up to 30% of the mold production cost is related to the latter secondary finishing processes because most of these operations involve handwork. In the proposed research our intention is to design a automated manufacturing process, based on the EDµM electric discharge µmachining and UAµM ultrasonic abrasive µmachining principles. In EDµM, electric discharges are produced between a tool and the workpiece to be polished. Each discharge attacks the surface peeks and vaporise tiny amount of the material. For UAµM, an ultrasonic activated tool generates powerful yet small displacement to propel abrasive particles over the surface of the workpiece which removes or displaces tiny amount of material. The novelty of this approach resides in the possibility to combine the advantages of both processes within the same numerically controlled machine tool. Such characteristic is made possible by the development of a ductile, electrically conductive and wear resistant polymer tool which, once compression molded can be used as a tool to perform either material removal techniques in the hardest metals. The entire process is environmentally friendly since it is conducted in air or with abrasive particles (like sand) and does not generate toxic by-products. Mold manufacturing represents a 3 to 4 billion dollars business in Canada, and competition from emerging countries is fierce because of lower wages. Thus, the proposed research endeavours giving back a worldwide competitive edge to our mold manufacturing industry.

拟议的研究是关于开发一种新的自动化制造工艺，旨在取代大规模生产注塑模具的制造过程中涉及的繁琐的手工抛光操作。 注塑模具是需要以合理的价格生产包含在各种消费品（例如汽车、计算机、手机、电动工具、玩具等）中的任何种类的聚合物部件的昂贵的设备部件。 注塑模具的主腔是用功能强大的数控铣床从一块工具钢材料中雕刻出来的，然后进行二次手动加工以获得所需的表面光洁度。 高达30%的模具生产成本与后期的二次精加工工艺有关，因为这些操作大多涉及手工。 在拟议的研究中，我们的目的是设计一个自动化的制造工艺，基于艾德µM放电µ加工和UAµM超声磨料µ加工原理。 在艾德µM中，在工具和待抛光工件之间产生放电。 每一次放电都会攻击表面，并蒸发少量的材料。 对于UAµM，超声波激活工具产生强大而微小的位移，将磨料颗粒推过工件表面，从而去除或移动少量材料。 这种方法的新奇在于可以在同一数控机床内联合收割机结合两种工艺的优点。 这种特性是通过开发一种可延展的、导电的和耐磨的聚合物工具而成为可能的，该聚合物工具一旦压缩成型就可以用作在最硬的金属中执行材料去除技术的工具。 整个过程是环保的，因为它是在空气中或与磨料颗粒（如沙子）进行，不会产生有毒的副产品。 模具制造在加拿大代表着30亿至40亿美元的业务，由于工资较低，来自新兴国家的竞争非常激烈。 因此，拟议的研究努力给予回一个全球性的竞争优势，我们的模具制造业。