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Development of a modified through-mask electrochemical micromachining for micropatterning nonplanar surface

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Abstract

To achieve cost-effective patterning of microfeatures on the nonplanar surfaces, a modified through-mask electrochemical micromachining process (TMEMM) was developed in which a layer of flexible insulating media with interconnected micropores is filled in the interelectrode gap and presses the through mask, considerably facilitating the mechanically attachment of the reusable through mask to the complex workpieces during EMM. A uniquely special tool cathode with a variety of outlet passages was correspondingly designed to significantly alleviate mass transfer limitation because of introduction of the flexible media. Some numerical and experimental investigations were then carried out to evaluate this proposed TMEMM process, with the focus on analyzing the dimension distribution uniformity of the machined microdimples. It is showed that the modified active TMEMM process exhibits favorable machinability and applicability to produce microdimples with significantly uniform geometric profiles on the planar and nonplanar surfaces.

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Correspondence to Pingmei Ming.

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Ming, P., Zhou, W., Zhao, C. et al. Development of a modified through-mask electrochemical micromachining for micropatterning nonplanar surface. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 93, 2613–2623 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-017-0541-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-017-0541-5

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