Micro/Meso Roll-to-Plate (R2P) Imprinting Process to Fabricate Micro Channel/Riblet Features

Abstract

Functional metallic surface micro/meso structures such as micro channels/grooves or micro riblets have been increasingly applied in many fields, such as optics, tribology, fluid-dynamics and heat exchange or mass tranfer. Micro/meso forming has the potential of efficiently and economically fabricating functional microstructures over a large surface area. A mciro/meso roll-to-plate imprinting technique was proposed and the process system was self-developed. The pure copper specimens with various grains were imprinted to investigate the effects of mould cavity dimensions (width, spacing, and fillet) and grain size on the formation of features. It was concluded that the width and grain size had significant effects on the feature formation. Wider groove or larger size grain was helpful to enhance the flowability of materials. Moreover, the technique was validated for high throughput, low cost, low emission, and flexible fabrication technique.