Smooth Particle Hydrodynamics Simulation of Micro-Cup-Extrusion Using a Graphit-ic Coating

Microextrusion is becoming increasingly important for the manufacturing of microcomponents. However, this reduction in scale to a microlevel means that the influence of friction and the need for suitable lubrication are greatly increased. This study therefore looks at the use of a low-friction and highly wear resistant Graphit-ic coating on the mold-forming section of a microextrusion mold, this coating being applied by a closed-field unbalanced magnetron sputter ion plating technique. A microcup of CuZn33 brass alloy was then extruded, with a wall thickness of 0.45 mm, outside diameter of 2.9 mm, and an internal diameter of 2 mm. The experimental results in which extrusion uses the mold coating with Graphit-ic film are compared against the experimental results in which extrusion uses the mold uncoating with Graphit-ic film. This showed that the load was decreased a lot and the self-lubricating solid coating facilitates a smooth extrusion process. As the extrusion rate was quite high, smoothed particle hydrodynamics method simulations of the extrusion process were conducted, these being then compared with the experimental results. These result showed that the SPH simulation can be applied to show the deformation of materials and predict the load trend.