Laser assisted machining is an alternative to conventional machining of hard and/or difficult-to-process materials which involves pre-heating of a focused area with a laser beam over the surface of the workpiece to cause localized thermal softening along the path of the cutting action. The main advantage that laser assisted machining has over conventional machining is the increased material rem...

Micro-groove is one of the most important features in mechanical, electronic, photonic, and bio-medical components. In recent years, fabircation of micro-grooves became increasingly important with an advancement of product miniaturisation. It is realised that in micro-machining of grooves, the principal problem is the presence of burrs along the feature edges and also the profile inaccuracy aff...

Micro-forming is a miniaturization technology with great potential for high productivity. Some technical challenges, however, need to be addressed before micro-forming becomes a commercially viable manufacturing process. These challenges include severe tribological conditions, difficulty in achieving desired tolerances, and short tool-life due to inability of available die materials to withstan...

This paper presents the development of Artificial Neural Network (ANN) models for the prediction of laser machined internal micro-channels’ dimensions and production costs. In this work, a pulsed Nd:YVO4 laser was used for machining micro-channels in polycarbonate material. Six ANN multi-layered, feed-forward, back-propagation models are presented which were developed on three different trainin...

The greatest challenge being faced for realization of Micro-Electro Mechanical System (MEMS) technology is the lack of a simple, quick and reliable method for the fabrication of 3-D microchannel in the range of micrometers. A novel fabrication technique which opens possibilities for the production of these microfluidic channels is presented in this paper. The present paper highlights the possib...

Among all non-conventional micro-machining, electrochemical discharge machining (ECDM) is having high quality of material removal rate with zero residual stress. This machining has been accepted as a highly modern technology in micromachining. In this paper an effort has been done on micro drilling of glass using electrochemical discharge machining (ECDM). A fixed tool and a step down transform...

Present manufacturing industries are facing challenges from these advanced materials viz. super alloys, ceramics, and composites, that are hard and difficult to machine, requiring high precision, surface quality which increases machining cost. To meet these challenges, non-conventional machining processes are being employed to achieve higher metal removal rate, better surface finish and greater...

Silicon carbide (SiC) has found a variety of engineering applications due to its superior properties. However, it is still desirable to study cost-effective processes to machine silicon carbide. This paper presents the results of a designed experimental investigation into Rotary Ultrasonic Machining (RUM) of silicon carbide. A four-variable two-level full factorial design was employed to reveal...

The paper offers evidence on the feasibility of a newly proposed micro-machining process, which is motivated by the need to overcome the various limitations associated with μ-EDM and conventional ultra-short laser micro-machining processes. The limitations in μ-EDM and laser micromachining processes are mainly due to the requirement of a conductive electrode and workpiece, electrode wear and co...