Micromilling: Material microstructure effects

Abstract Micromilling is one of the technologies that is currently widely used for the production of microcomponents and tooling inserts. To improve the quality and surface finish of machined microstructures the factors affecting the process dynamic stability should be studied systematically. This paper investigates the machining response of a metallurgically and mechanically modified material. The results of micromilling workpieces of an Al 5000 series alloy with different grain microstructures are reported. In particular, the machining response of three Al 5083 workpieces whose microstructure was modified through a severe plastic deformation was studied when milling thin features in microcomponents. The effects of the material microstructure on the resulting part quality and surface integrity are discussed and conclusions made about its importance in micromilling. The investigation has shown that through a refinement of material microstructure it is possible to improve significantly the surface integrity of the microcomponents and tooling cavities produced by micromilling.