Microstructure grooves with a width of less than 50 μm cut with ground hard metal micro end mills

Mechanical microengineering is an easy and cheap way to fabricate microstructures; for example, molds for injection molding or hot embossing. Restrictions remain in the selection of materials and in the minimum structure size. Especially for cutting microstructures in steel, these limitations included the lack of available small tools and the poor surface quality. We discovered that microstructures can be cut in both brass and stainless steel workpieces by using ground hard metal micro end mills. The minimum groove width achieved is less than 50 mu m for cutting brass and about 100 mu m for cutting stainless steel. Burrs are removed by a subsequent diamond-cutting step or electrochemical polishing, respectively. Our results represent the first step toward a microstructured, resistant, and cheap mold made of steel, which is then used for mass production of plastic microstructures. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.