Liu P.H.-T.
OMAX Corporation, US
Keywords: abrasive-waterjet, delicate materials, heat-affected zone, materials independence, meso-micro machining
Under the support of an NSF SBIR Phase II Grant, OMAX has developed and commercialized micro abrasive-waterjet (uAWJ) technology to broaden its applications toward micro scales. AWJ has several technological and manufacturing merits that are unmatchable by most conventional machine tools. Such merits include several unique ones: •Material independence – machine most materials for a wide range of part thickness and anisotropy from macro to micro scales o Metal, nonmetal, alloy, composite (e.g., FR4, CMC, and fiber-reinforced PEEK) laminate, brittle material (most glass – even partially tempered ones, and silicon wafers) o Most suitable for machining difficult materials such as hardened steel and titanium During SBIR Phase 1 and 2 R&D, several novel processes and apparatus were developed to enable the development and field deployment of AWJ technology (patented/patents pending). The AWJ technology was commercialized by introducing a precision AWJ platform, MicroMAX, in September 2013 (http://www.omax.com/waterjet-cutting/machine/model/micromax). There is considerable demand of the MicroMAX for a wide range of meso-micro machining applications in biomedical, energy related, microelectronic, and other fields. Selected AWJ-machined samples will be presented for various applications with emphasis on AWJ meso-micro machining to demonstrate the versatility and uniqueness of AWJ technology.
Journal: TechConnect Briefs
Volume: 4, Advanced Manufacturing, Electronics and Microsystems: TechConnect Briefs 2015
Published: June 14, 2015
Pages: 39 - 42
Industry sector: Advanced Materials & Manufacturing
Topic: Advanced Manufacturing
ISBN: 978-1-4987-4730-1