Micro-Slit Cutting in an Aluminum Foil Using an Un-Traveling Tungsten Wire

Abstract

Microslit cutting in aluminum foils is considered to be difficult as aluminum foils have low hardness and deformability. In this study, a novel cutting method is proposed where a tungsten microwire is utilized as the tool to cut aluminum foil without tool traveling or spinning. A statics simulation is first performed to analyze the cutting mechanism. Further, a tungsten wire with a diameter of 50 μm is utilized as the tool and a series of experiments are carried to discuss how the feeding rate influences slit width and roughness. With optimal parameters, it takes only 100 s to fabricate a 5 mm long microslit with an average width of 48.75 μm, width standard deviation of 1.48 μm, and surface roughness of 0.110 μm when applying initial/secondary velocity of 50/50 μm·s−1.

Keywords

• microslit
• aluminum foil
• tungsten wire
• cutting