Microscale Flanging Using Quasi-Static and Electromagnetic Forming Processes

Past research has shown that scatter in material properties and springback (i.e., the elastic recovery of material after the tooling is extracted) increase as components are miniaturized to the microscale. At the macroscale, electromagnetic forming (EMF) has been shown to completely eliminate or at least decrease springback by varying the deformation mechanism. In EMF, a capacitor bank is charged and then quickly dissipated into a specially designed magnetic coil. A transient magnetic field is produced which induces eddy currents in the workpiece, and any other conductive material nearby. The magnetic fields in the coil and the workpiece are repulsive; thus, the workpiece is launched at a high velocity away from the coil. EMF at the macroscale requires a significant amount of stored energy. However at the microscale, EMF may be a viable process due to the reduced energy and force requirements and thus is being investigated in this work.