Mechanical Guru's

Ultrasonic Machining Ultrasonic machining (USM) is a mechanical material removal process used to erode holes and cavities in hard or brittle workpieces by using shaped tools, high frequency mechanical motion, and an abrasive slurry. A relatively soft tool is shaped as desired and vibrated against the workpiece while a mixture of fine abrasive and water flows between them. The friction of the abrasive particles gradually cuts the workpiece. Materials such as hardened steel, carbides, rubies, quartz, diamonds, and glass can easily be machined by USM. Ultrasonic machining is able to effectively machine all materials harder than HRc 40, whether or not the material is an electrical conductor or an insulator Electrochemical Machining (ECM) · The physics - an electrode and workpiece (conductor) are placed in an electrolyte, and a potential voltage is applied. On the anode (+ve) side the metal molecules ionize (lose electrons) break free of the workpiece, and travel through the

HOT MACHINING THE ELECTROFORMING PROCESS: Electroforming is a highly specialized process for fabricating a metal part by electrode position in a plating bath over a base form or mandrel which is subsequently removed. The electroforming manufacturing method generates an exact copy via replication in metal (typically nickel or copper) of a master mandrel . Specific benefits of electroforming are low unit costs, exact atomic scale repeatability and excellent process control for quality. Often times the design engineer will find electroforming is preferred for many applications requiring a complex true geometric shape form factor, thin walls, and high repeatability. The process is additive in that the geometry of the desired part is accomplished by deposition of metal instead of removal of material as in typical machine tooling. This mandrel is often three-dimensional, as in the case of a reflector (parabola, ellipse, conic etc.) or other complex shapes. The mandrel is place