Forming of titanium and titanium alloy miniature-cylinders by electrical-field activated powder sintering and forming

Abstract

Abstract. As demands on miniature products increase significantly, a rapid process and production system for high-throughput, highly flexible and cost-efficient volume production of miniaturised components made from a wide range of materials is needed. A novel and electrical-field-activated sintering and forming process shows the potential to produce solid parts from powder material without any binder. Using titanium (Ti) and titanium alloy (90Ti10Sn) powder material, several processing parameters have been investigated, such as pressure, heating rate, heating temperature and holding time, which helped to contribute to the optimum result. In this study, using graphite dies, graphite punches and tungsten carbide punches, solid samples were produced, having a cylinder shape of Ø4.00 mm × 4.00 mm. Several properties of the solid Ti and 90Ti10Sn samples, such as density, hardness and the microstructures, were examined, and these showed that good results have been obtained.

Integrated, multidisciplinary approaches for micro-manufacturing research, and new opportunities and challenges to micro-manufacturing

“…49 More micro-parts formed with and developing process understanding of Micro-FAST were reported in the literatures. 29,[50][51][52][53][54] The main techniques that were developed for overcoming barriers of the traditional FAST for the applications at the micro-scale including (1) directly feeding loose powders into the dies/moulds (i.e. no need for preparing a green compact); (2) combining micro-forming (forming the component at the microscale) with the FAST to enable complex shapes/features at the micro-scale, being assisted using large current density; and (3) directly forming the component using the shaping dies/moulds without using lubricants.…”

“…Micro-FAST project resulted in a completely new manufacturing system for the volume production of miniaturised/micro-components by overcoming the challenges on the manufacturing of these components with a wide range of materials 55 (e.g. metallic alloys, and composites and ceramics) [51][52][53][54] that are normally seen as 'difficult-to-cut' and 'difficult-to-deform' materials, through (1) developing the Micro-FAST laboratory process into a high throughput, flexible and costefficient production process involving simultaneous micro-forming and electric-field activated sintering of powder materials; (2) developing technological measures for scaling up the process for improved forming quality and efficiency; (3) developing an automated industrial press system for Micro-FAST-based micro-/ nano-manufacturing, including fully automated modes for heating, cooling, vacuum, measurement, condition monitoring as well as tool transport. These were enabled/supported by developing (1) a new press machine with an innovative handling-system, (2) an innovative inline monitoring and inspection system, (3) innovative multi-scale modelling techniques for the analysis of densification and forming processes, (4) new tool designs and micro-tooling techniques for highperformance tools, and (5) high-quality nano-material systems.…”

“…Photos of the sample parts formed with Micro-FAST. [46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53] energy savings, cost and waste reduction and materialrecycling issues, which were studied thoroughly through an expertise life-cycle assessment. First Micro-FAST prototype production machine system has been built, tested and demonstrated, and continuing optimisation of the machine system and tool designs is being carried out, aiming at fully meeting industrial production requirements.…”