Combined Manufacturing Process of Copper Electrodes for Micro Texturing Applications (AMSME)

Area of Science:

• Materials Science and Engineering
• Manufacturing Processes
• Surface Engineering

Background:

• Surface texturing enhances component functionality.
• Sinker electro discharge machining (SEDM) is effective for surface texturing.
• Conventional methods struggle to produce complex electrode geometries.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop advanced manufacturing techniques for copper electrodes.
• To apply these electrodes for functional surface texturing of Al-Cu alloy.
• To explore the capabilities of additive manufacturing in electrode fabrication.

Main Methods:

• A combined additive manufacturing, sputtering, and micro-electroforming (AMSME) process was employed.
• Digital Light Processing (DLP) was used for electrode fabrication.
• Custom laboratory equipment was developed for microscopic detail reproduction.

Main Results:

• The AMSME process successfully manufactured copper electrodes with high precision.
• Micro-scale spherical geometries were reproduced on the electrodes.
• Electrodes with a minimum thickness of 300 µm demonstrated excellent performance in SEDM surface finishing.

Conclusions:

• The AMSME process is a viable method for manufacturing copper electrodes for SEDM.
• This technique enables highly detailed, micro-metric scale surface texturing.
• The developed method shows significant potential for advanced surface texturing applications.