Finite grain-element analysis and its experimental confirmation of micro-yoke forming

The aim of this study is to establish a milli-scaled part forming technology for the micro-yoke, one of the key parts of multi-functioned mobile phone. The recent trends towards miniaturization cause the commercial demands for the part with very small dimensions. Until present, an axisymmetric yoke had manufactured by machining through the material's removal. However, the machining process has been some problems such as long production time, high precision of tool and costs. In this study, finite element modeling and analysis using grain elements are performed in order to replace the machining process of micro-yoke. A new numerical model about grain element and grain boundary element is proposed to simulate the process of the micro-yoke forming, and a series of experiments are carried out to confirm the analysis results. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.