INVESTIGATION OF MICRO-MANUFACTURING PROCESS PERFORMANCE VIA INNOVATIVE SURFACE CHARACTERISATION METHODS

Gavin MacAulay, Nicola Senin, Claudiu L. Giusca, Richard K. Leach

Abstract

Increasing interest surrounds micro-manufacturing, in part due to the growth of structured surfaces, which require the fabrication of localised micro-scale surface features. Assessment of manufacturing process performance is critical to optimisation of the resulting product and can be addressed by inspection of the resulting geometries. The micrometre scale of features on typical structured surfaces necessitate the use of optical surface topography measuring instruments, common to surface metrology, to measure such surfaces. However, associated conventional surface texture characterisation methods, based on areal texture parameters, often prove inadequate because they fail to capture the relevant geometric properties needed for an effective dimensional verification. The work reported here investigates an alternative route based on determination of dimensional/geometric attributes of the micro-fabricated features. This approach allows for direct assessment of manufacturing process performance by comparison of the geometric attributes with their nominal values. An example application is shown where a micromachining process (laser texturing) is applied to the fabrication of a periodic pattern of cylindrical pockets (dimples) to be used in low-friction bearing surfaces. Fabrication process performance is assessed through the geometric characterisation of the resulting topographies.

Keywords

structured surfaces, laser texturing, surface metrology

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DOI

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IMEKO TC

TC14 - Measurement of Geometrical Quantities

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