Rapid Prototyping Methods for Precision Glass Components

令人振奋的丰富的新制造技术创造了新的机会来解决旧问题和解决未得到满足的需求领域。一个特别令人感兴趣的领域是开发低成本的玻璃快速成型平台，以测试计数系统的效率和可行性。扩展是当今业界对实验室开发的设备进行扩展时所采用的方法。这种方法在化学工业等一些领域是有问题的，因为控制设备操作的物理现象可能会发生变化，并在更大范围内变得不稳定(如微型电池)。为了保持设备的功能，向上编号策略尤其适用于小规模设备。此策略意味着连接相同大小的相同设备，以创建具有更高吞吐量的系统。 我的研究计划旨在开发低成本、灵活和精确的玻璃创新快速成型技术。这种技术将能够加工玻璃并在加工表面上建立多材料结构，从而定制表面特性以适应应用的需要。此外，在玻璃表面加入不同类型的材料将产生表面玻璃基复合材料，这对化学、光电子和半导体应用非常重要。在短期内，我的目标是将一种名为火花辅助化学雕刻的电化学加工过程转化为一种快速原型技术，方法是： 1)开发通过微粒子掺入以受控方式调整机械加工结构的表面特性的方法 2)开发算法，允许在减小轴向和横向加工力的情况下加速高高宽比结构的精密切割和加工 3)开发控制表面形貌的方法，包括纹理和粗糙度 加拿大制造业占该国国内生产总值总额的10%以上，制造商每年出口3540亿美元以上，占加拿大所有商品出口的68%。拟议的研究直接有助于开发玻璃和玻璃基复合材料的新型精密制造技术。因此，它将有助于推进精密制造领域的知识。产生的知识将转移给研究界和实践者。它将应用于不同的行业，例如制造光管、芯片实验室设备和磁光开关。这项研究将培养高素质的制造专业人员(学生)，并为他们配备未来制造工程师所需的知识和技能。这将刺激加拿大制造业的增长和竞争力。

The inspiring abundance of novel manufacturing technologies has created new opportunities to solve old problems and address areas of unmet need. An area of particular interest is developing low-cost rapid prototyping platforms for glass to test efficiency and feasibility of numbering-up systems. Scaling-up is the approach that industry applies today for sizing-up devices developed in the lab. This approach is problematic in some fields such as for the chemical industry since the physical phenomena governing the device operation might change and become unstable at a larger scale (like for micro-batteries). To maintain the device functionality, numbering-up strategy is promising especially for small-scale devices. This strategy implies connecting identical devices of the same size to create a system with increased throughput. My research program aims to develop innovative rapid prototyping techniques for glass that are low-cost, flexible and precise. Such techniques will be able to machine glass and build multi-material structures on the machined surface, hence tailoring the surface properties to fit the need of the application. Furthermore, incorporating a different type of material into the glass surface would lead to creating surface glass-matrix composites which are important for chemical, optoelectronics and semiconductor applications. In the short-term, I aim to translate an electrochemical machining process called Spark Assisted Chemical Engraving to a rapid prototyping technique through: 1) Developing methods for adjusting in a controlled way the surface properties of machined structures by micro-particles incorporation 2) Developing algorithms that allow accelerated precision cutting and machining of high-aspect ratio structures under reduced axial and lateral machining forces 3) Developing methods for controlling the surface topography including the texture and roughness Canada's manufacturing sector represents more than 10 percent of the country's total GDP and manufacturers export more than $354 billion each year which is 68 per cent of all of Canada's merchandise exports. The proposed research directly contributes to developing novel precision manufacturing techniques for glass and glass-matrix composites. It will therefore help in advancing the knowledge in the precision manufacturing field. The generated knowledge will be transferred to the research community and practitioners. It will be applied in different industries to create for example light pipes, lab-on-a-chip devices, and magneto-optical switches. The research will train highly qualified manufacturing professionals (students) and equip them with the knowledge and the skill set required for future manufacturing engineers. This will spur growth and competitiveness in the Canadian manufacturing industry.