Development of a novel custom micro-tool for effective cutting of a precision microgroove array on a microscope slide

Abstract

This study presents a novel, economical and efficient fabrication technique for precisely generating multiple microgrooves on a microscope slide to allow for microscopic examination of urine sediment cells. This study incorporates two important phases: a precision wheel-tool array is fabricated and then the developed tool is used in fast on-line grinding of multiple microgrooves. The wheel-tool blank is made of diamond grit of 0–2 µm grade via co-deposition. Subsequently, it is trued, sliced and sharpened by means of micro wire electro discharge dressing. The finished wheel-tool is utilized on-line to grind multiple microgrooves using ‘high-speed and fast-shallow grinding’. A ductile grinding regime is established to obtain a nano-metric surface finish for the multiple microgrooves generated on the microscope slide. The depth and width of the grooves in the array are both 10 µm and a surface finish of Ra equal to 0.010 µm is simultaneously achieved. This multiple microgrooving technique can supply high-quality fast grinding in the fabrication of bio-medical devices, such as those used for stationing and counting urine sediment cells.