Bringing metal casting to microfabrication: process development and plastic deformation

  • Date: Nov 28, 2022
  • Time: 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Luciano Borasi
  • Laboratory of Mechanical Metallurgy, EPFL - Lausanne, Switzerland
  • Location: Virtual Lecture
  • Host: on invitation of Prof. Gerhard Dehm
 Bringing metal casting to microfabrication: process development and plastic deformation
Where: virtual on Zoom (link follows)

Current means for producing truly three-dimensional metallic micro-components with non-trivial shapes are often either too slow to be economically viable, not adapted to metals of interest for engineering applications, or produce porous or otherwise imperfect metal microstructures. Our work aims to provide new means for producing metallic microcomponents by downscaling metal casting. This is accomplished by using either of two different molding techniques, namely femtosecond laser machining or silicon microfabrication, in combination with metal pressure infiltration. The process is then used to cast monocrystalline tensile specimens, of diameter selected in the range from 2.5 to 13 μm, which are tested in-situ within the SEM at room temperature, 200 or 400 °C. Results show that microcast metal structures produced via this approach exhibit characteristics of confined plasticity; the influence of size, crystal orientation, and temperature on the deformation, yield, intermittency and strain hardening of these micrometric dense metal samples is investigated.

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