Sub-millimetre drilling ?

[Externet]

How does the industry drills a hole 0.1mm diameter on iron, brass, stainless ?

Are drill bits the norm, or is there another way ? Say you want a hole as fine as a human hair...

[EdEarl]

Water jets and lasers are used to cut things, but I don't know what they use for submillimeter work.

[ProfessorDoxus]

Well, not every drill is contained to the size of your average screw, things can get small. That being said, Ed is probably right, if you want a fine hole, then lasers make sense. But my question would be would it remain fine, considering that (we're using iron for this instance) the melting point of Iron is 1,538°C, how hot does a laser get? If it gets above the melting point, would the hole be as precise?

[dimreepr]

How does the industry drills a hole 0.1mm diameter on iron, brass, stainless ?

Are drill bits the norm, or is there another way ? Say you want a hole as fine as a human hair...

 

I drilled holes down to 0.1mm using a spark eroder with a good degree of accuracy.

 

 

[Danijel Gorupec]

 

 

I drilled holes down to 0.1mm using a spark eroder with a good degree of accuracy.

 

 

 

 

Can you provide more details. I am interested in this technology... Does it mean that the electrode must be thinner than 0.1mm? Do you spend one electrode per one hole? What is the drilling speed? I suppose you can drill metals only? What parameters you can vary on your equipment? Finally, why is sparking only happening at the electrode tip - I suppose that hole walls are not very smooth? Thanks (no one else to ask).

[EdEarl]

You can start here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spark_erosion

[Enthalpy]

Drill bits are commonly used for D=0.4mm at printed circuit boards; the main difficulty is to stop all translations, since the bits are fragile. I doubt they exist at D=0.1mm.

 

0.1mm should be no big worry for a laser. But don't expect nice walls nor accurate dimensions. The material's thickness is also limited by the cut's conical angle.

 

Smaller diameters are possible in thin materials. With optical, UV or electron beam patterning followed by plasma etching, you can go down to 22nm presently... Or stop before if you don't make microchips. An electron beam can also evaporate a hole directly.

 

More exotic possibilities exist. For instance radioactivity can destroy a thin polymer on the path of alpha particles, at many random places, which are then etched hollow by a corrosive liquid. Nice sieve.

[StringJunky]

It seems they do go down to 0.1mm:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Carbide-Micro-Drill-0-1mm-Dremel/dp/B0087M0QA2

[dimreepr]

   

 

Can you provide more details. I am interested in this technology... Does it mean that the electrode must be thinner than 0.1mm? Do you spend one electrode per one hole? What is the drilling speed? I suppose you can drill metals only? What parameters you can vary on your equipment? Finally, why is sparking only happening at the electrode tip - I suppose that hole walls are not very smooth? Thanks (no one else to ask).

 

 

 

No problem:

 

1 The electrode from memory was 0.08.

 

2 The electrode would probably do 2 or 3 holes depending on depth

 

3 The speed of operation was quite slow.

 

4 Yes, although graphite can be used as an electrode, so I imagine anything that conducts and breaks down similarly to steel (the only material generally used as the process is primarily for dies) would possibly work.

 

5 You can change amperes, voltage, on-time and off-time (the time the electrode is charged).

 

6 The electrode only is charged the rest of the machine is perfectly insulated (as perfect as a mega tester can measure)

 

The above information comes with the natural haze 20 years absence brings.

 

 

 

Edited May 22, 2013 by dimreepr