Abstract
Today, micro components are used in various industrial sectors such as electronics engineering and medical applications. The final quality of such parts depends on each individual step of the production chain from the manufacturing of semi-finished parts to the post-processing. In this study, magnetron sputtering is used to manufacture thin (15-30 μm) aluminium-zirconium alloy foils for the deep drawing of high strength and hardenable micro cups, which can be, for example, employed as micro valve caps. The development of a novel process chain for the production of these parts includes four different steps, beginning with the production of Al-Zr foils by magnetron sputtering. Secondly, tensile tests are performed with the foils in order to estimate their mechanical properties. Subsequently, micro deep drawing is used to produce the cup’s shape, and finally, a heat treatment in a drop-down tube furnace adjusts the cup’s hardness during fall. It is shown in particular that Al-Zr foils produced by magnetron sputtering have an attractive cold forming and hardening potential due to a microstructure consisting essentially of an oversaturated solid solution of zirconium in the aluminium matrix. This material state enables adequate formability and simplifies the heat treatment process since no solution annealing is required.
Highlights
The trend for micro components in various applications such as medical tools, connectors in mobile phones or fuel injectors requires a decrease of size and an increase in quality over the whole product life cycle
Any post forming heat treatment must be performed on a material that is free of precipitates at this point in the process chain
Four steps for the optimization of the process chain for the production of micro cold formed cups made of a high-strength Al-Zr alloy were presented
Summary
The trend for micro components in various applications such as medical tools, connectors in mobile phones or fuel injectors requires a decrease of size and an increase in quality over the whole product life cycle. Four steps for the development of a process chain for the production of micro cold-formed cups made of a high-strength aluminium alloy are presented. Among the possible alloying elements for aluminium to increase the hardness, scandium shows the best potential due to the formation of nanoscaled cubic (L12 Cu3Au-type) Al3Sc precipitates. These equilibrium precipitates provide an extraordinarily high lattice misfit without losing the coherence with the aluminium matrix and, result in a significantly higher strength of the alloy compared to semi-coherent precipitates in conventionally age-hardened alloys [1]. % zirconium in supersaturated solid solution [4,5] The properties of these foils, i.e. semi-finished products for cold forming, depend on several parameters of the magnetron sputtering process, primarily the target power. The mechanical properties of deep drawn cup before and after the heat treatment were investigated by the micro hardness
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