A new manufacturing chain for ceramic shaping: sequential combination of milling and laser machining in green ceramic

Abstract

Contribution to euspen’s 20th International Conference & Exhibition (Geneva, CH, June 2020)

Abstract : "The ceramic microcomponents have very interesting mechanical and thermal properties in an extreme environment such as a high temperature, a corrosive environment, etc. Unfortunately, the principal limitation of ceramic material usage is its shaping because of the brittlness of the material. In modern industry, the use of ceramic materials is still limited to particular applications. MACHCERAM is a new manufacturing chain for ceramic shaping developed from powder synthesis to final machining which introduces a hybrid machining by combining the machining with a cutting tool and a laser machining. The Green Ceramic Machining (GCM) is carried out in this dedicated novel sub-hybrid platform. This combination allows to increase the productivity and repeatability, specifically thanks to the reduced laser spot size that allows to machine small features. The goal of this paper is to find the best combination between the tool diameter and laser machining in this manufacturing chain to reduce the machining time. The optimum is determined with the help of a Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM) software developed for the milling process by modeling the laser beam as a cutting tool. The machined result of the combination shows a 50 um offset between both processes. In this stage production, thin walls of 200 um break because the mechanical properties of the material are low. Surface integrity is also impacted with a different dimensional tolerance between both processes."