Improving the Machining Quality of Micro Structures by Using Electrophoresis-Assisted Ultrasonic Micromilling Machining

Traditional micromilling leaves burrs and has a high surface roughness in the workpiece, which compromises the microstructural machining quality. Electrophoresis-assisted ultrasonic micromilling machining (EUMM) is proposed to solve this problem. An electrophoresis assisted electric field is applied to attract abrasive particles into the machining gap. Combined with the ultrasonic vibrations of the workpiece, the impact and grinding effect of these abrasive particles in the machining gap removes burrs that are generated during machining and reduces the surface roughness of the microstructure. Micro channels were generated for this study to verify the proposed method. The experimental results show that the EUMM significantly reduces burr formation during microchannel milling. The EUMM also decreases the surface roughness (Ra); the bottom roughness using the EUMM (0.33 µm) is lower than that with either the ultrasonic micromilling (UMM) or traditional micromilling. The EUMM also improves the sidewall roughness since the grinding and particle impacts significantly smooth the sidewalls. The particles during EUMM ensure a low surface roughness of 0.34 µm for the vertical sidewalls. Furthermore, the EUMM has a lesser effect on the width of the micro channels; as the spindle speed increases, the microchannel width only increases from 486 to 498 µm.