Application of Design of the Experiment in Preliminary Investigations on the end Milling of Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramics

The formation of three-dimensional shapes is one of the most important technological steps in low temperature co-fired ceramics (LTCC) process. Channels and chambers qualities and the process speed are strongly affected by the shaping procedure. There are three main machining techniques: laser cutting, punching, and milling. This article is dedicated to end milling process of LTCC tapes. The determined PS/DK 2(3) experiment design was used in the investigations and its procedure is described in this article. The used procedure is a very flexible method to achieve much useful information about the influence of the process parameters on the output. The PS/DK 2(3) experiment design enables analysis of the influence of: the three input parameters on the output (minimal obtained feature) and the interaction between the input parameters on the output (minimal obtained feature). Moreover, PS/DK 2(3) experiment design enables to obtain the mathematical model of the milling process and to decrease the number of measurements demanded to achieve the correct model. Hence, the design is suitable to decrease the time and costs of the experiment. The influence of the following input parameters: spindle rotational speed, spindle feed rate, vertical spindle step, and cutter diameter on minimal obtained feature of LTCC tapes is analyzed in this article.