Fabrication of Probes for Profile Measurement of Microcomponents by Micro-EDM: Microprobe Fabrication Methods and Effect of Vibration Assisted Micro-EDM on Machining Time

Due to the advancement of micro-machining technology, development of measuring method for both profile and dimension of micro-components has been strongly demanded. One of the methods available for this is a small three-dimensional profile measuring apparatus with micro-probes. For this purpose, we have investigated fabrication technologies for micro-probes that are used for a small three-dimensional coordinate measuring machine. However, machining of rather complicated probes such as slanting probes as described in the ensuing section, is very difficult due to unstable machining conditions. Thus, long time is required for probe fabrication, and it is sometimes impossible to continue the normal machining due to improper flow out of the cutting chip powder. From this reason, we have tried implementation of the fundamental experiments on vibration-assisted micro-EDM, which considered to be effective to increase machining stability. The results clearly indicate that the vibration of tool electrodes has a major influence on the machining speed. In this report, at first micro-probe fabrication methods using micro-EDM were described, then the results of fundamental experiments on the effect of vibration frequency, amplitude and direction of vibration will be described.