Micro Hole Drilling Using

Ultrasonic Grinding
Vishnu Prasad K

No:17
S2, M Tech, Production Engineering
Mechanical Department

Overview
Introduction
Micro holes and Existing Techniques of production
Drilling by Grinding
Grinding Tool and Fabrication
Experimental Setup and Machine Specification
Experiment and Results: 30m
Experiment and Results: 20m
A.WITHOUT HELICAL FEEDING

B.WITH HELICAL FEEDING

Influence of Helical Feeding
2

Inference and 10m Hole drilling

Conclusion and References

Introduction
Micro-hole
Holes with dimensions
most conveniently
described in micrometers

Used in:
Micro-nozzles
Micro-electro-mechanical
systems (MEMS) Accelerometer
3

Existing Techniques
on Hard and Brittle Materials

Laser Processing
Low Dimensional Accuracy
High Surface Roughness

Chemical Etching
High Running Cost
Produces Toxic Chemicals

Ultrasonic Machining
Low Material Removal Rate

High Tool Wear Ratio

Thus a New Method is required for the Fabrication of micro-holes

on Hard and Brittle Materials

Drilling by Grinding
Widely Used for Hard Brittle
Materials
Finishing-Plane and Curved
Surfaces, Also Drilling
Limited to sub-millimeter
Dimensions
Difficulty in Tool Making for
micro dimensions
Tool Breakage Due to
Grinding Forces
5

Drilling by Grinding
High Dimensional Accuracy
Tool Used
Cemented Tungsten
Carbide
Fabricated by EDM
Ultrasonic Vibration
Reduce Grinding Force
Results in Drilling
capability down to 10m
6

Grinding Tool
Referred as Micro-pins
Tool Made of Cemented
Tungsten Carbide

High Strength and High

Fracture Toughness

Tool Fabrication
Generally Micro Tools are Produced by
Electroplating Abrasive-grains to Shank
Highly Costly-Shank making and Electroplating
Required
Difficult to Electroplate with Ultrafine Grains for
Micro Tools with Constant Pitch and Protrusion
Height of Grains
8

Tool Fabrication
Tool Shank Machined by
Electron Discharge Machining
Called Wire-Electro Discharge
Grinding (WEDG)
Wire Tool Electrode is Used for
Machining
Wire is Guided so as to reduce
Vibrations
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Tool Fabrication

10

Maximum Discharge Energy per Pulse is (1/2) CE^2

Tool Fabrication
Cemented Tungsten Carbide Pin
Placed in a mandrel and Clamped
Mandrel Placed on the V shaped
Bearing

Drive Provided through Belt drive

from motor

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Tool and Work Setup

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Machine Spec
Machine Designed for Micro-Ultrasonic Machining
ASWU-1, Creative Tech Corp

Three axis Step Feed @ 0.05m

Work piece held on an Ultrasonic Transducer for Vertical
Oscillation mounted on a transducer holder
Electronic Balance-EB430H Shimadzu Corp-10 mgf least
increment, 10 ms time resolution
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Machine Spec

14

Ultrasonic Grinding
Either Helical Feed or Axial Feed
Helical Feed Provided to Avoid
Ground Chip Clogging

15

Experiment & Results: 30m

Axial Feed Speed 0.27m (With or Without Helical feed)

Tool axial feed Length 30m
Tool Diameter:
25m with Planetary motion radius 2.5m- Helical Feed
30m- Non helical Feed
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Experiment & Results: 30m

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Experiment & Results: 30m

Hole Drilled by Helical Feed was detected with a taper-Due

to horizontal deflection of tool from the inner surface of
hole by Grinding Force
Hole Without Helical Feed do not have taper

Probable that Ground Chip Clogging hardly occurred

without Helical feed owing to Low aspect Ratio
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Experiment & Results: 20m

A.WITHOUT HELICAL FEEDING:

5 consecutive Holes Drilled-Axial Feed Speed 0.25m/s

Without Helical feed
Tool axial feed Length 20m
Tool Dimensions:
Diameter: 20m
Length: 33m
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Experiment & Results: 20m

A.WITHOUT HELICAL FEEDING:

20

Experiment & Results: 20m

A.WITHOUT HELICAL FEEDING:

Grinding Thrust Force increased from 0N-First Hole to 0.2N

for fifth hole-Attributed to Tool Wear
Edges of the Fifth Hole cracked owing to huge grinding
Force

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Experiment & Results: 20m

A.WITHOUT HELICAL FEEDING:

22

Experiment & Results: 20m

B.WITH HELICAL FEEDING:

3 consecutive Holes Drilled-Axial Feed Speed 0.25m/s

Without Helical feed
Tool axial feed Length 20m
Tool Dimensions:
Diameter: 15m

Length: 32m
23 Planetary Motion Radius: 2.5m

Experiment & Results: 20m

B.WITH HELICAL FEEDING:

Tool Broke when Drilling Third Hole

Accredited to High Aspect Ratio of the Tool by decrease

in the Diameter
Extra Horizontal Force on the Tool due to Helical feeding

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Experiment & Results: 20m

B.WITH HELICAL FEEDING:

25

Experiment & Results: 20m

B.WITH HELICAL FEEDING:

First Hole produced has Taper similar to that of 30m

Holes produced by Helical Feed
Dark Circle(12m) shows the Tool Position at end of
Drilling-Rounded Off by Wear
Tool Broke when Drilling Third Hole
Accredited to High Aspect Ratio of the Tool by decrease
in the Diameter
26

Extra Horizontal Force on the Tool due to Helical feeding

Experiment & Results: 20m

Evolution of Grinding force
without Helical Feeding

27

Evolution of Grinding force

with Helical feeding

A Topic of Future Scope

Inference from Experiments

Drilling by Helical Feeding do not Support high Aspect
Ratio Tools
Also Helical Feeding causes Taper on the Hole drilled
Thrust force reduction is observed only at 20m Holes
which require further study to conform the influential
Factors

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Hence a High Aspect Ratio Tool without Helical feeding was

employed for Drilling 10m Holes

Experiment & Results: 10m

Axial Feed Speed: 0.27m/s
Tool Axial Feed Length:30m
No Cracks were found at the edges except for few small
Chippings
Hence a Micro hole of 10m Diameter was drilled for the
first time
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Experiment & Results: 10m

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Conclusion
In drilling 30-m-diameter holes with helical feeding, the
drilled holes had a taper and the grinding-force-reducing
effect was not observed.
The grinding-force-reducing effect of helical feeding was
observed in the drilling of 20-m-diameter holes. However,
it did not help prevent tool breakage, and the drilled holes
were tapered. These results suggest that helical feeding is
unnecessary.
Tools with a lower aspect ratio can be used without helical
feeding, leading to the improvement in tool breakage
resistance that enables the use of smaller-diameter tools.
As a result, the drilling of a micro hole 10 m in diameter
was successfully achieved. This is the smallest-diameter
31
hole drilled by grinding, to the best of knowledge.

References
Kai Egashira, Ryokei Kumagai, Ryohei Okina, Keishi
Yamaguchi, Minoru Ota. Drilling of micro holes down to
10m in diameter using ultrasonic grinding. Precision
Engineering 2014
Egashira K, Mizutani K. Ultrasonic vibration drilling of
microholes in glass, CIRP Annals, 2002;51(1):339342
Masuzawa T, Fujino M, Kobayashi K. Wire electrodischarge grinding for micro-machining, CIRP Annals,
1985;34(1):431434
Egashira K, Mizutani K. Micro-drilling of monocrystalline
silicon using a cutting tool, Precision Engineering,
2002;26(3):263268
32

THANK YOU
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