Manufacturing of dies and an experimental study on the cold-press surface-texture forming process

Abstract

Surface texturing can significantly improve the service performance of joint surfaces. However, the fabrication techniques for micro- and nanoscale structures require high-precision equipment and involve complicated processes. An efficient and practicable cold-press forming technique for surface-texture fabrication was proposed. First, the feasible methods for fabricating cold-pressed dies with surface textures were introduced. Three methods for preparing cold-pressing dies having microembossment arrays were explored. The preparation of dies via through-mask electrochemical machining on an alloy steel surface was deemed feasible. Then, the process parameters of cold-press surface-texturing were calculated using the sliding line method. The application of single microembossment to cold pressing of brass verified the validity of the models. Ultimately, cold-pressing experiments were performed using an array microembossment die. A surface texture of 1000 pits was formed in ∼3 s, and the desired quality was achieved. The experimental results showed that cold pressing of surface textures could be accomplished using the manufactured dies at a low cost and high efficiency.