Development of a micro-forming system for micro-punching process of micro-hole arrays in brass foil

Micro-forming technology poses much higher demands on positioning accuracy, velocity and mass production, and the common forming machines cannot satisfy these requirements using traditional drive methods. Micro-forming equipment using novel drive methods with high speed and high precision has become an important research field for industrial application. In the paper, a novel drive mechanism was designed with a symmetric distributed double linear motors and a micro-forming system was developed with micro-punching tools and automatic feeding apparatus for metal foil. The servo control system of this micro-forming system was designed using SIMOTION 0445, and a parallel control model was adopted with a single motor module to solve the synchronous control problems of double linear motors. Micro-punching process of brass foil was studied with the micro-forming system, and micro-holes of 600 mu m, 300 mu m and 150 mu m in diameter were manufactured with high dimensional accuracy. An array of 50 x 4 micro-holes, each 600 mu m in diameter, was manufactured using an automatic feeding apparatus guided by a microscopic visualization system for assisted localization. The results indicate that the micro-forming system with high-accuracy and high-speed is suitable for the mass production of micro-scale parts. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.