The Hybrid Machining of Ceramic: The choice of production stage

Abstract

Contribution to "Euspen’s 17th International Conference & Exhibition, Hannover, DE, May 2017".

Abstract : "The demand for micro products has increased gradually since last decades in various areas, requiring the development of micro manufacturing processes. Micro manufacturing is characterized by the size of functional features (smaller than 10 um), a high precision, a good surface finishing and complex parts in a wide variety of materials. The Traditional Machining Processes (TMPs) are intensively used to produce micro-components, but the minimum feature size they can produce is limited. In parallel, the Nontraditional Machining Processes (NMPs) were developed to manufacture micro components of a few microns, but the processing times are slower. Hybrid Machining Processes (HMPs) was introduced to address the demand to increase production with an enhanced quality for difficult-to-machine materials such as ceramics. In this paper, the HMP considered, a combination of micro-milling and laser machining, is developed to machine ceramic materials. This HMP may be carried out at different stages in the ceramic production. The goal of this paper is to determine the most attractive production stage in ceramic machining with this HMP. "