Feasibility study on the micro-forming of novel metal foil arrays based on submerged cavitating water-jet impingement

Current micro-plastic forming methods for metal foil arrays have problems such as high cost and complex processes. A highly efficient, flexible, low-cost, green, and environmentally friendly submerged cavitation water jet micro-forming processing method for metal foil arrays is proposed, which used vacuole collapse shock wave loading. The micro-hole formation of 304 stainless steel foil array with a thickness of 80 μm was used as an example to study the influence of target distance and impact time on the depth and uniformity of micro-hole formation by plastic forming of metal foil array, and the feasibility of the method was verified. The results show that the depth of the array micropores located on the radius r = 13.6 mm within the impact zone of vacuole collapse is 166.4 μm, and the maximum surface roughness is 1.54 μm. The thinning rate is between 2 and 10% under the conditions of impact action time 5 min, target distance 120 mm, and pressure 20 MPa.