Explosive welding of Ni- based amorphous foils for micro-tooling applications
R.M. Minev (a), S.S. Dimov (b), S.R. Koev (c), G.Lalev (b), N.H. Festchiev (a)
(a) Department of Materials and Manufacturing Engineering, Rousse University, 8 Studentska, 7017 Rousse, Bulgaria
(b) Manufacturing Engineering Center, Cardiff University, Cardiff, CF24 3AA, UK
(c) BOM Ltd, Basarbovo, 7071 Rousse, Bulgaria
Abstract
In spite of the commercial advantages the available engineering materials for IC and MEMS processes are not able to meet the manufacturing demands for 3D high-aspect-ratio nano/micro structures and high precision. There is a group of energy assisted processes, such as laser ablation, e-beam and ion beam machining that could provide the needed high specific processing energy to create 3D microstructures. However, the required surface integrity of the manufactured nano/micro structures cannot be achieved without developing appropriate materials with adequate processing response. Thus, to broaden the range of micro-engineering products and multiply their capabilities the introduction of “novel” compatible amorphous or composite materials is required.
The study presents the capability of the explosive welding technology to create a bimetallic sandwich with amorphous Ni-based alloys foils (40 μm thick) without affecting the structure of the materials. Direct patterning by Focused Ion Beam (FIB) was used to produce masters from these materials for injection moulding and hot embossing tools. It was demonstrated that high feature resolution and surface quality of the manufactured nano/micro structures can be easily achieved by employing this technological chain.