Fine finishing of SiC microchannels using abrasive flow machining

Abstract

<span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; font-family:" times="" new="" roman","serif";mso-fareast-font-family:"times="" roman";="" mso-ansi-language:en-us;mso-fareast-language:en-us;mso-bidi-language:ar-sa"="">Finishing of microchannels is a major requirement in many applications including micro fluidics. The finishing of the channel wall/surfaces significantly influence the flow characteristics of the fluid being flown through them. Abrasive flow machining (AFM) is one of the non-traditional finishing processes in which a flexible cutting tool is used to remove the micro asperities from the target surface. It is capable of machining micro-bores, channels, blind holes and intricate geometries, which are difficult to finish using the traditional processes. In the present work, microchannels fabricated using ultrasonic machining (USM) are fine finished by AFM. The input parameters such as extrusion pressure, wt% of processing oil and processing time are varied while finishing the microchannels using a double-acting horizontal type AFM setup. It is observed that surface finish of the microchannel walls got improved by more than 55%. The machining performance is evaluated in terms of the responses-surface finish and material removed. Optimum values of the process parameters are determined for better surface quality.</span>