Metal micromolding: further experiments and preliminary finite element analysis

We report results of instrumented microscale compression molding experiments on Al with Ta mold inserts. The Ta inserts have high-aspect-ratio microscale structures fabricated by micro-electrical-discharge-machining. These microscale structures were further surface engineered by electrochemical polishing, followed by deposition of a conformal amorphous hydrogenated carbon based coating. The molding response of Al, in terms of molding force versus insert displacement, was measured in situ with a high-vacuum, instrumented, compression molding apparatus, and rationalized with a simple model on the mechanics of molding. Molding response was further studied numerically through finite element analysis.