Laboratory for Manufacturing and Sustainability

With increasing demands in manufacturing for smaller and more precise features, the advent of micromechanical machining processes, such as microdrilling and micromilling to create features at the microscale are of increasing importance. However, at the length scales found in micromechanical machining, localized variation in the microstructure (such as grain boundaries and grain orientation in polycrystalline materials) can greatly affect the machinability and final process outcome in terms of surface and edge condition; defects such as excessive roughness and burrs are of particular importance. A focused set of micromachining experiments were conducted on single crystal materials in order to further understand how surface and edge condition are affected by material crystallographic orientation. A clear correlation between burr height and crystallographic orientation was found, giving insight into optimal orientations and process parameters for acceptable micromachining process outcome.