Micromilling is one of the technologies that is currently widely used for the production of microcomponents and tooling inserts. To improve the quality and surface finish of machined microstructures the factors affecting the process dynamic stability should be studied systematically. This paper investigates the machining response of a metallurgically and mechanically modified material. The results of micromilling workpieces of an Al 5000 series alloy with different grain microstructures are reported. In particular, the machining response of three Al 5083 workpieces whose microstructure was modified through a severe plastic deformation was studied when milling thin features in microcomponents. The effects of the material microstructure on the resulting part quality and surface integrity are discussed and conclusions made about its importance in micromilling. The investigation has shown that through a refinement of material microstructure it is possible to improve significantly the surface integrity of the microcomponents and tooling cavities produced by micromilling.

This article presents the authors’ views about the current trends in the development of micro- and nano-manufacturing. Especially, it is focused on broadening the range of materials and processing technologies that should be considered in designing and implementing manufacturing platforms underpinning the development and the serial production of micro- and nanotechnologies (MNT) enabled products. This article discusses the existing trends in research and development of MNT and their applications, together with the challenges and opportunities that they represent for research community and industry in designing and implementing new manufacturing platforms for existing and emerging products.

The realization of complex three-dimensional structures at micro-and nanometre scale in various materials is of great importance for a number of micromechanical, microoptical, and microelectronic applications. Focused ion beam (FIB) patterning is one of the promising technologies for producing such three-dimensional structures utilizing layer-by-layer fabrication methods. A novel and efficient data preparation approach is proposed in this paper for layer-based FIB processing. By applying it, complex surfaces can be designed easily in any three-dimensional computer-aided design (CAD) package and then converted into GDSII streams for FIB sputtering or deposition. To validate the proposed CAD/CAM approach an experimental study was conducted. The factors that can affect the accuracy of the structures produced by layer-based FIB processing are also discussed. By assessing all stages of the proposed approach and the results of its experimental validation, conclusions are drawn about its applicability.

Laser milling of engineering materials is a viable alternative to conventional methods for machining complex microcomponents. The laser source employed to perform such microstructuring has a direct impact on achievable surface integrity. At the same time, the trade-offs between high removal rates and the resulting surface integrity should be taken into account when selecting the most appropriate ablation regime for performing laser milling. In this paper the effects of pulse duration on surface quality and material microstructure are investigated when ablating a material commonly used for manufacturing microtooling inserts. For both micro-and nanosecond laser regimes, it was estimated that the heat-affected zone on the processed surface is within 50 mm. When performing ultra-short pulsed laser ablation, the effects of heat transfer are not as evident as they are after processing with longer laser pulse durations. Although some heat is dissipated into the bulk when working in pico-and femtosecond regimes it is not sufficient to trigger significant structural changes.

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