Precision Molding of Metallic Micro-Components

University Of Florida, Gainesville FL

Investigators

Abstract

This project involves an interdisciplinary interaction between researchers with expertise in tribology, materials, and precision engineering. Bulk metallic glasses are materials that may permit the mass production of high strength micro-components of arbitrary geometry at extremely low cost. The successful development of micro-molding technology with these materials will revolutionize micro-systems and enable numerous wholly new classes of micro-devices. The PIs have shown that certain bulk metallic glasses can be molded to produce micron sized or potentially sub-micron sized features at low temperatures (350C-400C), and retain their high strengths. The ability to flow the bulk metallic glasses in the supercooled liquid state appears to be ideally suited for mass production using a micro-molding process. During the project, the material properties relevant to processing of bulk metallic glasses will be characterized. This will be used to determine the processing parameters for forcing this metal glass into molds for micro-components. Accuracy of molded micro-component features will be assessed using an embossing technique with three primary processing parameters varied: pressure, temperature, and embossing rate. As part of this project, some of the undergraduate students in the Integrated Product and Process Design (IPPD) group will work on the design of specific devices and systems. The IPPD students are from 7 different engineering and business departments and typically work on industry-submitted projects. The University of Florida has one of the largest populations of Latino students, and the PIs intend to utilize the close interaction in the IPPD program to recruit these minority students into research and the graduate program. At the conclusion of this project, a knowledge base will have been created to enable a whole new class of products with applications in a wide range of micro and meso-scale systems.