Sreenidhi Cherku, Murali M Sundaram, and K P Rajurkar
Center for Nontraditional Manufacturing Research University of Nebraska-Lincoln Lincoln, Nebraska, USA
INTRODUCTION In many conventional machining processes like
Micro ultrasonic machining (micro USM), grinding, milling and broaching processes oil has is one of the efficient material removal been successfully used as cutting fluid. These processes especially suitable for the oils can be used either as straight oils, which are micromachining of hard and brittle materials. pure petroleum based oils or emulsifiers which The principle of micro USM is shown in Figure 1. are water based oils. Use of straight oils have In micro USM workpiece which is placed on the excellent lubricating properties and are used workpiece table vibrates at ultrasonic frequency especially for machining process involving low (40 KHz). Abrasive slurry is injected on the top speeds, low clearance requiring high quality of the workpiece. There is a rotating tool which surface finish. These oils have more viscosity hits the abrasive particles in the slurry which in and good lubricating properties than water and turn hit the workpiece and chip away the causes less tool wear. Hence, it may be prudent material from it. The vibrations given to the to use oil based slurry in micro USM. This paper workpiece aid in refreshing the slurry so that reports the experimental inverstigation of the fresh abrasive particles are in contact with the same. workpiece and also in removing the debris from the tool workpiece gap [1-4]. SYSTEM DESIGN An in-house built experimental micro USM system based on the design concept of “vibration on work piece [5,6]” is schematically shown in Figure 2.
FIGURE 1. Principle of USM
The abrasive slurry acts as lubricating agent as
well as coolant in reducing the frictional heat generated due to the movement of the abrasive FIGURE 2. Schematic of in-house built Micro particles on the workpiece and heat generated USM by the vibrations due to the transducer. The slurry also collects the debris from the machined A micro tool, attached to a mandrel rested on V- area. In general micro USM is carried out with shaped block is rotated by a DC motor and is water as the medium due to its properties of free to move in X, Y and Z directions with six excellent coolant, easy removal of debris from degrees of freedom. Micro tools with different machining zone due to low viscosity, low cost diameters are prepared by wire Electrical and easy availability. Discharge Grinding (WEDG). The micro tool is sensitive to elastic bending, vibration, and breakage. Therefore, the contact force between tool and workpiece needs to be controlled and limited to a certain level during machining. This is achieved by implementing a close-loop control strategy with force feedback. Key system components such as electronic balance and three-axis stage have high resolution (0.1 mg and 25 nm, respectively) to meet the demand of accuracy in micro machining.
EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS & DISCUSSION
The machining parameters used in the study are listed in Table 1.
TABLE 1. Machining parameters FIGURE 3. MRR vs Concentration for particle
size 0~0.5 Control Variable Setting Applied Load 3g Using medium sized particles as shown in Vibration amplitude 1 µm Figure 4, MRR increases with the increase in the Rotational Speed 1000RPM concentration as there are cutting edges for a Abrasive Particle Size 0~0.5, 1~3, 3~5 given volume of abrasive slurry. The MRR is Abrasive concentration 0.5%,1%,3% more when machined with oil compared to water Medium of the slurry Water, Oil as shows the comparison of MRR between Tool Diameter 180 µm water based and oil based slurry with respect to Vibration amplitude 1 µm the varying abrasive slurry concentrations for the Tool Material Tungsten particle size of 1~3. Work Piece Material Silicon Wafer Abrasive Material Poly Crystalline Diamond
Holes with drill depth of 30 µm are drilled on the
silicon wafer. Each of these experiments are repeated thrice and the averaged to analyze the results.
Material removal rate (MRR)
In machining with fine sized grains as shown in Figure 3, the MRR increases with the increase in the abrasive particles due to increase in the number of particles involved in the machining. MRR is more when machining with the water as oil is more viscous than water hampers the process of debris removal in the processing of FIGURE 4. MRR vs Concentration for particle machining thus accounting for less MRR. size 1~3
When machining with coarser grains as shown
in Figure 5, the MRR is more when machined in aqueous medium compared to oil. As the grains become coarser the grain boundaries try to interlock reducing the number if cutting edges. Oil possessing more viscous property interlocks these grains strongly compared to water thus contributing to less MRR. Using medium sized abrasives the surface roughness shown in Figure 7, with the increase in the concentration the particle size decreases in the process of machining, indicating more number of particles to absorb the heat generated during the process which eventually reduces the surface roughness. However surface roughness for oil is less compared to water since water acting as coolant absorbs the generated heat.
FIGURE 5. MRR vs Concentration for particle
size 3~5
It is observed that machining with water based
slurry is more suitable for finer particles sizes with higher concentration or medium particles sizes with medium concentration or coarser particle sizes with lower particles where as machining with oil based slurry is always suitable for all the particle sizes with low concentration. FIGURE 7. Surface Roughness vs Surface Roughness Concentration for Particle Size 1~3 When machining with finer grains the surface shown in Figure 6, finer grains having constant When machining with coarser size grains as cutting edges hit the workpiece repeatedly. shown in Figure 8, as the concentration Further the debris is added in the process of increases there are more coarser particles material removal increasing the frictional heat hitting the work surface thus making it rougher. making the surface rougher with the increase in Since oil acts as better coolant than water thus the concentration. However oil acting as coolant giving better surface finish. reduces the surface roughness to some extent. Thus producing good surface finish compared to machining in water medium.
FIGURE 8. Surface Roughness vs
Concentration for Particle Size 3~5 FIGURE 6. Surface Roughness vs Concentration for Particle Size 0~0.5 Finally it is observed that machining with oil based slurry gives good surface finish compared to the water based slurry. Furthermore good with the finer particles whereas machining with surface finish is given by machining with the coarser grains gives poor surface finish. finer particles whereas machining with coarser grains gives poor surface finish. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The financial support from the NSF under grant Machining Mode in Oil Based and Water number CMMI – 0728294 and DMI – 0355380 is Based Slurry acknowledged. It is evident from the SEM images of the holes drilled that brittle machining mode occurs when REFERENCES machining with oil where as ductile machining [1] T.B.Thoe, D.K.Aspinwall, M.L.H.Wise. occurs when machining with water. Oil Review on Ultrasonic Machining. possessing the property of more viscosity acts International Journal of Machine Tools & as good lubricant displacing the particles in the Manufacturing. Vol.38; pp.239-355; 1998. machining zone without indenting the surface [2] Z.Yu, K.P.Rajurkar, A.Tandon. Study of 3D and just scratching it thus machining in the brittle Micro-Ultrasonic Machining. Journal of mode. However the particles in the machining Manufacturing Science and Engineering. zone are constant without being displaced when Vol.126; 2004. water is used, particles protruding into the [3] X.Hu, Z.Yu, K.P.Rajurkar. State of the art surface of the workpiece indenting it thus investigation and research issues in micro machining in ductile mode. ultra sonic machining. ASME International Conference on Manufacturing Science and The ductile and brittle machining mode can be Engineering. 2006. differentiated according to the particle size used [4] Z.Yu, X.Hu, K.P.Rajurkar. Influence of in machining [7]. Use of smaller particle size debris accumulation on material removal results in ductile machining mode as there are and surface roughness in micro ultrasonic number or particles in the machining zone, machining of silicon. Annals of CIRP. distributing the applied static load in machining Vol.55; pp. 201-204; 2006. among many small particles and reducing the [5] K. Egashira, T. Masuzawa, M.Fujino, net force applied per particle, just scratching the X.Q.Sun. Applications of USM to surface leading to ductile machining mode. Micromachining by On-the –machine Tool Machining with larger particles involves more Fabrication. International Journal of static load per particle as there are less particles Electrical Machining. Vol.2; pp.31-36; 1997. thus indenting the surface leading to brittle [6] K. Egashira, T. Masuzawa. Micro Ultrasonic machining mode. Machining by the Application of Work Piece Vibration. Annals of CIRP.Vol.48; pp.131- SUMMARY 134; 1999. This paper presents the results of micro [7] M.M.Sundaram, C.Sreenidhi, K.P.Rajurkar. ultrasonic machining using oil based abrasive Micro Ultrasonic Machining Using Oil based slurry. An in-house built experimental setup was Abrasive Slurry. Accepted for Publication in used to conduct designed experiments. The the Proceedings of the 2008 International influence of process parameters such as slurry Manufacturing Science and Engineering medium, slurry concentration, and abrasive Conference. Oct 7-10; 2008. particle size on the performance of micro USM Material Removal Rate (MRR) and Surface Roughness (SR) is reported. It is evident from the experimental study that machining with water based slurry is suitable only for finer particles sizes with higher concentration or medium particles sizes with medium concentration or coarser particle sizes with lower particles where as machining with oil based slurry is always suitable for all the particle sizes with low concentration. Further the study reveals that machining with oil based slurry gives good surface finish compared to the water based slurry. Good surface finish is given by machining