Rapid Prototyping Methods for Precision Glass Components

令人鼓舞的大量新型制造技术为解决老问题和解决未满足需求的领域创造了新的机会。一个特别感兴趣的领域是开发低成本的玻璃快速原型平台，以测试编号系统的效率和可行性。放大是当今工业应用于实验室中开发的设备的方法。这种方法在某些领域是有问题的，比如化学工业，因为控制设备操作的物理现象可能会改变，并且在更大的范围内（比如微电池）变得不稳定。为了保持设备的功能，计数策略尤其适用于小型设备。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。

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.