The Fabrication of Micro-Array Channels with the Ultrafine-Grained LZ91 Mg-Li Alloy by Micro-Embossing

Abstract

The fabrication of the micro-channel array through micro-embossing on an ultrafine-grained (UFG) LZ91 Mg-Li alloy was investigated in this paper. Micro-embossing tests indicated that the depth of the channels increase with increasing temperatures. Micro-array channels with widths ranging from 50 μm to 200 μm were performed with an applied force of 2 kN at 423 K, following by a dwell time of 60 s on the UFG LZ91 Mg-Li alloy. The surface topography indicates that embossed micro-channels for UFG LZ91 Mg-Li with all widths are clearly printed well with good geometrical transferability and no obvious defects. The comparison filling behavior of UFG and the CG LZ91 Mg-Li alloy reveals that grain sizes mainly affect the filling quality of micro-embossing. The results indicate a potential application of the UFG Mg-Li alloy in the mass fabrication of micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) components.

Keywords

• micro-embossing
• ultrafine grains
• micro-array channels
• Mg-Li alloy