This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
The research objective of this Grant Opportunity for Academic Liaison with Industry (GOALI) award is to explore the scientific bases and technologies for fabricating precision metal micro-features through the micro-stamping process. This research is motivated by increasing demand for low-cost, high-precision metallic components to satisfy the requirements of efficiency, strength, temperature and/or corrosion resistance in the areas of electronics, medical devices, energy generation and heat exchangers, etc.. To accomplish this goal, four research tasks are planned: (1) Mechanical characterization of thin metal sheets to accurately model the nonlinear kinematic hardening behavior; (2) Experimental and numerical analysis of springback in thin sheets; (3) Friction characterization in micro-stamping; and (4) Exploratory study of process control in micro-stamping to minimize variations in micro-stamping. Thin metal sheets less than 300 µm in thickness with feature sizes less than 500 µm are of interest to this work.
If successful, the results of this research will enhance the fabrication capability of thin precision metallic parts; thus, establishing new opportunities for less energy consumption due to part miniaturization and efficient energy generation. For example, a 70% reduction in hard disk size leads to a 75% reduction in energy consumption; micro-channel heat exchangers (with a characteristic length of 100 µm) have demonstrated heat fluxes 3 to 5 times higher than conventional heat exchangers; sub-millimeter needles increase patient comfort during insertion, etc.. The research is a collaboration between Northwestern University, Intri-Plex, Inc., and an international partner from the Nagoya Institute of Technology in Japan. This team provides a nurturing environment for the training of the next generation of post-doctoral fellows, graduate, undergraduate students and junior high students through advising, short courses, early exposure to industry, and opportunities for international collaborations.
