Experimental application of a laboratory equipment for micro-electroforming using models manufactured with additive technology

Abstract

One of the manufacturing processes applications on a microscopic scale, consists in modifying parts or components´ surfaces to improve their properties. Unconventional machining processes are needed to generate complex geometries, high details reproduction, and excellent finished surfaces at that scale. Micro sinker electrical discharge manufacturing (μSEDM) process could be one good option. The electrode manufacturing is one of the main drawbacks. It supposes a big resources waste before starting to manufacture. In this way, working on a microscopic scale becomes a challenge to obtain different shapes and textures on functional surfaces. In this work, combined use of micro-electroforming and digital light processing (DLP) additive manufacturing is presented. These two additive techniques are completely different and unrelated in their applications, materials, and technological fundamentals. However, their combination is a low-cost option to obtain good results in the manufacture of μ-SEDM electrodes. Therefore, it was necessary to develop a micro-electroforming equipment to meet the challenge. Furthermore, device had to have the ability to adapt the process parameters to the needs of the parts. As a result of this experimental application, we got high-quality parts, which could have an industrial application.