Microwave Drilling

Abstract

Prevailing nontraditional machining processes are energy-intensive, time-consuming and generally restricted to a specific category of materials. Novel nontraditional machining processes are being sought to overcome these limitations. Microwave drilling is a faster, energy-efficient, and versatile nontraditional machining technology that relies on the conversion of microwave energy into localized thermal energy to drill engineering materials. The conversion of microwave energy into thermal energy takes place through microwave-matter interaction phenomena. Microwave drilling based on the thermal runaway phenomenon was introduced in 2000 to drill mainly nonmetallic materials. Since its introduction, few other methods of microwave drilling are being explored to drill nonmetallic or/and metallic materials. This chapter describes methods of microwave drilling based on different microwave-matter interaction phenomena. Moreover, their respective advantages, limitations and challenges are discussed.