A Review of Progressive and Compound Forming of Bulk Microparts by Using Sheet Metals

¹ Department of Mechanical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong
² School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, P.R. China

^* Corresponding author: mmmwfu@polyu.edu.hk

Abstract

In the last decade, the concept of progressive microforming has emerged and developed gradually, which is considered as an efficient and promising method to fabricate the micro-scaled part. Micro-cylinder parts, micro-flanged part, and multi-flanged microparts are representative micro bulk parts by the progressive microforming system using sheet metal. In these cases, many efforts focus on the forming process, such as microblanking and microextrusion. Meanwhile, the quality of the fabricated parts also attracts attention. In this paper, an intensive review on the development of progressive microforming technologies and the formed parts is presented, and the influence of size effect to dimensional accuracy, material flow, geometrical feature, and fracture is also discussed.