Journal of Materials Processing Technology 125±126 (2002) 35±44

MicroformingÐfrom basic research to its realization

U. Engel*, R. Eckstein
Chair of Manufacturing Technology LFT, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Egerlandstr. 11, 91058 Erlangen, Germany
Received 14 January 2002; accepted 20 January 2002

Abstract

The production of miniature parts is gaining importance due to the trend of miniaturization which is increasingly determining the development
of products ranging from mobile phones and computers to medical products. The application of conventional manufacturing processes for the
production of such microparts is possible, but there are problems that result from the small dimensions. This fact applies also in the ®eld of metal
forming, however, in the meantime many research projects in several countries could improve this situation. This paper gives a review of the problems
associated with miniaturization, the way of solution starting from basic research, and the results showing the progress of microforming today.
# 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Micro-metal forming; Material behaviour; Processes

1. Introduction
To start with, a de®nition: the term microforming, in the
context of metal forming, is understood to be the production
of parts or structures with at least two dimensions in the sub-
millimetre range [1]. Parts of such a size are commonly used
and more and more required in extremely high numbers, in
particular for electronic components in micro-system tech-
nologies (MST) and micro-electromechanical systems
(MEMS) as they characterize today many products pushing
forward their miniaturization. Typical examples for such
parts are pins for IC-carriers, fasteners, micro-screws, lead
frames, sockets, and any kind of connecting element (Fig. 1).
Secondly, its history: in 1990 as awareness of the tech-
nology grew, the industry produced such partsÐactually by
turning and millingÐthe question arose as to why this could
not be done by metal forming. For the metal forming society
this is quite a justi®ed question since forming is the pre-
destined method of manufacturing near net shape parts
especially when high production numbers and high produc-
tion rates are required. However, at this time it became
obvious, that there was no basic knowledge on microforming
and practically no application visible, not even in the pro-
totype stage. But there were some visions. One was given by
Maeda [2] who proposed the development of a super micro-
precision press-machine. This was one of the occasions to
start basic research on microforming at the authors' institute.
*
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: u.engel@lft.uni-erlangen.de (U. Engel).
The ®rst and rapidly yielding ®nding was that the know-how
of metal forming cannot be easily scaled down to the micro-
scale revealing simultaneously many other reasons why this
technology is not applied to this day. It is well-recognized
that it is not only the peculiarity of the process itself which
has to be understood, but there are also many problems
related to the tool and machine tool for which new solutions
must be found. Meanwhile, a lot of research activities have
been initiated worldwide covering this ®eld of problems and
showing that microforming is on a promising way towards
its application in industrial production. It is not the intention
of this paper to present the state of the art of microforming.
This was given recently elsewhere [1]. The intention is to
show by means of examples the necessity of basic research
to realize this special application of metal forming.
2. Microforming system
A microforming system can be split upÐlike conven-
tional forming processesÐinto four groups as shown in
Fig. 2.
Beside the challenges that are also known in the ®eld of
conventional forming, like tool design, wear and appropriate
treatment of the material, problems appear in microforming
that are strongly coupled with miniaturization itself. These
problems are observed in all four groups:
The material behaviour changes with miniaturization,
caused by size effects that occur when a process is scaled
down from conventional size to the micro-scale. The ¯ow

0924-0136/02/$ ± see front matter # 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 9 2 4 - 0 1 3 6 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 4 1 5 - 6
36 U. Engel, R. Eckstein / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 125±126 (2002) 35±44
Fig. 1. Microparts: lead frame, pitch 0.3 mm (top) and extruded parts
(Shinko, NME).
stress, the anisotropy, the ductility and the forming limit of
materials are in¯uenced by these size effects, which has to
be considered when designing a microforming process.
Also phenomena that are assigned to the process depend
on the size. Examples are the forming forces, the spring-back,
Fig. 2. Problems in the microworld (LFT).
the scatter of the results or friction. It should be emphasized
that the size effects concerning the material and the process
have to be considered during the process design and layout
and also affect the applicability of FE-based simulations.
The main problem regarding the tools lies in their man-
ufacturing, since it is dif®cult to create the very small
contours, which are necessary. Especially inner shapes,
e.g. for extrusion dies, with close tolerances and an adequate
surface quality are dif®cult to make. However, new manu-
facturing methods have been developed in order to over-
come these dif®culties. For instance, an embossing tool has
been developed with dimensions down to 200 nm made by
an electron beam lithography-etching process [1,3].
Also the problems associated with machines or equipment
grow with miniaturization. The clearance or the backlash
between the machine parts that are negligible for conven-
tional forming processes may have a detrimental in¯uence
on the accuracy of the produced parts. The handling of
material and parts is dif®cult, since the surfaces where they
can be gripped are very small and the part weight is low
compared with adhesion forces; as a result, the parts do not
separate from a gripper by themselves. Additionally, they
have to be placed with tolerances of a few microns, e.g. into
a die of a multi-station former.
The development of adequate measuring technology,
suited to measure the smallest contours of tools and parts,
respectively, is another challenge. Finally, the small dimen-
sions demand production in clean rooms, which causes
additional costs. Therefore, the development and use of
small machines could lead to a more economic production.
In recent years many research activities have started
dealing with the investigation of these problems. The focus
of the present paper is on the area of materials and processes,
cf. the following section. In Section 4 an outline of actual
research will be given to show also the progress within other
areas that are altogether indispensable to push forward this
new technology.
3. Microforming process
The comparison of microforming processes with conven-
tional ones shows that some parameters remain constant
when scaling down the dimensions. The microstructure of
the material, for instance, is independent of the dimensions
of the process. Another example is the topography of the
surface, which is also invariant. As a result, the ratio between
the dimensions of a part and parameters of the microstruc-
ture or surface changes with miniaturization. This leads to
the so-called size effects, which prevent the application of
the know-how of conventional forming processes in the ®eld
of microforming. Therefore, investigations were necessary
in order to quantify these size effects. The strategy was to
scale down forming processes systematically [4,5].
At ®rst, studies with basic experiments have been rea-
lized. The investigated processes were simple with the aim
 U. Engel, R. Eckstein / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 125±126 (2002) 35±44 37

to avoid complex tools as well as the problems connected

with their manufacturing. Additionally, more technologi-
cally oriented types of experiments made it possible to verify
the effects detected within the basic experiments. The
application of different materials has been managed for
the same reason.

3.1. Similarity

Scaling down a certain process is an accepted strategy to

investigate microforming processes and the effects of min-
iaturization [6]. With respect to an easy evaluation of the
experiments, it is recommended to ensure that the stress and
strain states and their rates remain constant, i.e. not affected
by the size of the process. Therefore, test series according to
the theory of similarity, especially conforming strictly to the
geometrical similarity, are well-suited for studies of micro-
forming processes. This means that all dimensions of speci-
men and tools are multiplied by the geometric scale l. Fixing
the time scale to 1, the tool velocity has to be scaled by l as
well yielding the size-independent strain rate as desired.
Starting from these preconditions, the process forces
should be proportional to l2 and the ¯ow stresses should
be size-independent. If the forces and stresses, respectively,
measured in experiments differ from theoretical ones, this
deviation is caused by the different dimensions of the pro-
cesses and can be identi®ed as a size effect. The strains of the
specimen are also independent of the process size, if processes
are geometrically similar. Hence, the strain distribution,
minimum and maximum strains should also be independent
of size, otherwise also a size effect has taken place.
3.2. General size effects
General size effects concern in particular the material
behaviour and friction, which are relevant for all forming
processes. The in¯uence of the miniaturization on the ¯ow
stress has been investigated by geometrically similar tensile
and upsetting tests. As pointed out above, all stresses should
be size-independent, but the experiments have shown that
the ¯ow stress decreases with increasing miniaturization. In
the ®eld of sheet metal forming, tensile tests using CuZn15,
CuNi18Zn20, copper and aluminium yielded a decrease of
up to 30% when reducing the sheet thickness from 2 mm
down to 0.17 mm. Bulge tests with sheets made of copper
alloy have shown the same tendency [7±10]. In the ®eld of
bulk metal forming the size effect on the ¯ow stress has been
investigated by upsetting tests with copper, CuZn15 and
CuSn6 [6,11]. Again, the miniaturization resulted in lower
¯ow stresses (Fig. 3). It should be emphasized that the grain
size of the test specimen was held constant for all scales,
which means that the decrease of the ¯ow curves is de®nitely
caused by the miniaturization and cannot be explained by
different grain structures.
The decrease of ¯ow stress can be explained by the so-
called surface layer model [12] which is based on the fact
Fig. 3. Decreasing flow curves (LFT).
that on small scales the material cannot be considered as an
homogeneous continuum any more [7,11]. The decisive
criterion is the ratio of grain size to the billets dimensions.
For microparts, the share of grains representing the surface
layer becomes high compared to the grains that are sur-
rounded entirely by other grains. From metal physics theory
it is known that free surface grains show less hardening com-
pared to the inner volume grains which can be explained by
the different mechanisms of dislocation movement and pile-
up and by the fact that they are less subjected to compatibility
restrictions. Thus, the integral ¯ow stress that is measured in
upsetting or tensile tests is a function of the share of surface
grains. This share increases with grain size and with minia-
turization as it can be seen in Fig. 4. It should be noted that the
above mentioned surface layer model can also be used in
modelling microforming processes by FEM [13].
Additional general size effects occur in tensile tests: The
vertical mean anisotropy of sheets decreases with miniatur-
ization. This means that the forming characteristics become
worse with miniaturization, because the thickness reduction
increases, which is an undesired phenomenon in deep
drawing processes. Furthermore, the uniform elongation
(the strain, when global necking starts in tensile tests)
decreases with miniaturization, and also the necking elon-
gation, which is the elongation between uniform and fracture
elongation [7].
The effect of miniaturization on friction has been inves-
tigated by ring compression and double cup extrusion (DCE)
38 U. Engel, R. Eckstein / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 125±126 (2002) 35±44
Fig. 4. Share of surface grains (LFT).
tests. The former is based on the fact that the evolution of the
inner diameter of a ring during compression depends quite
sensitively on friction. The investigations have shown that
friction increases with miniaturization in the case of lubri-
cation with oil, while it is size-independent in the case of no
lubrication [6,11,14].
The advantages of the DCE test compared with the ring
compression test are a larger increase in the surface area,
larger strains and higher pressure between specimen and die.
This means, the conditions are more similar to typical
extrusion processes [15,16]. For the investigation of the
in¯uence of miniaturization on friction, scaled DCE tests
have been carried out. The diameters of the specimen were
varied between 4 mm down to 0.5 mm. Fig. 5 outlines the
Fig. 5. DCE test: (a) dependence of cup height on friction; (b)±(d) FEM
calculation, development of the cups.
experimental setup: a cylindrical specimen is placed in a die
between a stationary and a moving punch of identical shape.
The upper punch moves down and causes the material to
form two cups with the cup heights hu and hl. In the
theoretical case of no friction (friction factor m ˆ 0) both
these cups have the same height, whereas the higher friction
gets, the more the forming of the lower cup is prevented.
Therefore, the ratio hu/hl is quite a sensitive measure for
friction. The amount of changes in friction conditions was
determined by a numerical identi®cation with FE-simulation
using the software DEFORM-2D.
Fig. 6 shows the experimental results. An extrusion oil
was applied for lubrication. It can be seen that the cup height
ratio and thus, friction increases distinctly with miniaturiza-
tion. For a quantitative approach the friction factor m can be
evaluated by numerical identi®cation [15]. The results are
also shown in Fig. 6 revealing an increase in friction factor
from m ˆ 0:02 in the case of the 4 mm specimen up to 0.15
and higher for the smaller specimens. It should be noted that
constant friction conditions do not result in a constant cup
height ratio over the course of the process, as it is con®rmed
by the experimental and simulation results as well.
This frictional behaviour can be explained by the model of
open and closed lubricant pockets, also called dynamic and
static lubricant pockets [11,15]. When a forming load is
applied to a lubricated workpiece surface, the asperities
(``roughness peaks'') start to deform plastically, thus
increasing the pressure of the lubricant which is trapped
in the ``roughness valleys'' in-between.
Roughness valleys that have a connection to the edge of
the surface cannot keep the lubricant. These are called
``open lubricant pockets''. With increasing normal pressure
the lubricant escapes and is not able to support or transmit
the forming load (Fig. 7). The forming load only acts on the
asperities which results in a higher normal pressure, a higher
degree of surface ¯attening and higher friction. Closed
lubricant pockets on the contrary do not have a connection
to the edge of the surface. The lubricant gets trapped in those
pockets and pressurized during forming. The pressurized
Fig. 6. Increase of friction indicated by the cup height ratio of a DCE test
depending on punch travel.
 U. Engel, R. Eckstein / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 125±126 (2002) 35±44
Fig. 7. Open and closed lubricant pockets (LFT).
lubricant helps to transmit the forming load, thus reducing
the normal pressure on the asperities, which results in lower
friction (Fig. 7). It can be summarized that closed lubricant
pockets reduce friction in contrast to open lubricant pockets.
Applying this model to the DCE test outlined above there
must be a scaling effect on the ratio of open to closed
lubricant pockets as shown in Fig. 8. It is obvious that there
is a region of constant width (denoted by x in Fig. 8) where
the open lubricant pockets become effective. This can be
con®rmed by roughness measurements on the outer surface
of the specimens after extrusion, showing distinct ¯attening
of asperities in the region of x. By reducing the specimen
size, the share of open lubricant pockets increases as well as
the friction factor. The model of open and closed lubricant
pockets has been con®rmed by additional and independent
investigation. For example, tests with specimens of ®xed
diameter but varying height have been carried out. In
accordance to the model an increase in friction with decreas-
ing height is observed. Another proof for the model arises
from the use of solid lubricants (or even dry conditions)
instead of a ¯uid. In that case the mechanism postulated by
the model cannot become effective and consequently size
effects do not occur [16].
A further effect, which has been observed in many
experiments, is the increase of scatter, when the dimensions
of forming processes become less, cf. Figs. 3 and 6. The
Fig. 8. Effect of miniaturization on areas with open and closed lubricant
pockets (LFT).
39
reason for this effect is that the random size and orientation
of the geometrical features characterizing the microstructure
(e.g. grain size) and topography (e.g. lateral extent of closed/
open lubricant pockets) become dominant when the speci-
men dimension is reduced.
3.3. Case studiesÐtowards process realization
Case studies show the signi®cance of size effects on
practical processes, which are in¯uenced by general size
effects and also, sometimes, by process speci®c phenomena.
They are necessary to formulate design rules for microform-
ing processes and are a ®nal and indispensable step to
facilitate the realization of a certain process.
The in¯uence of miniaturization on extrusion has been
investigated among other things with full forward extrusion
processes. Similar to the experiments presented in the last
section, tests according to the theory of similarity have been
carried out. The diameters of the billets were 4 mm down to
0.5 mm and different lubricants have been applied. The most
important result is that downscaling the part dimensions
results in an increase of the punch pressure. This is caused
by the increase in friction, which has been veri®ed by
FE-simulation. The friction factors determined by DCE tests
were applied in the calculations, and their results were in
good agreement with the experiments.
In order to study the material behaviour of a relatively
complex extrusion process, a combined forward rod±back-
ward can extrusion process was chosen. Again, geometri-
cally similar test series with billet diameters between 0.5 and
4 mm have been realized. Fig. 9 shows a specimen (billet
diameter of 0.5 mm) made within these tests. A speci®c
characteristic of this process is the ratio of cup height and
shaft length hC/lS (Fig. 10). The results show that this ratio
increases with miniaturization in the case of ®ne grained
material (grain size about 4 mm). Similar to the DCE test, the
increase of friction causes an increased material ¯ow in the
direction of the moving punch, that means the cup becomes
larger with miniaturization.
A second identical set of experiments was performed with
a heat-treated specimen, which had a coarse microstructure
(grain size about 120 mm). The behaviour was similar to the
case of ®ne grained material for the diameters 4 and 2 mm.
By contrast, there is no further increase of the cup height,
Fig. 9. Forward rodÐbackward can extrusion; initial diameter is 0.5 mm
(LFT).
40 U. Engel, R. Eckstein / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 125±126 (2002) 35±44

Fig. 10. Combined full forward cup backward extrusion: effect of

specimen size and microstructure on shape of extruded part (LFT).

when the billet diameter is set to 0.5 mm. This is explained

by the microstructure. In the case of the considered speci-
men the grain size is larger than the thickness of the wall of
the cup (120±75 mm). As observed in the case of bending
(see below), this reduces the ductility of the material. There-
fore, it is easier for the material to ¯ow in the shaft than in the
cup. This example clearly illustrates the importance of the
exact knowledge of miniaturization effects for process
design [15].
However, it is not only the process for which the minia-
turization effects have to be considered but also the quality
of the formed parts. The geometrical accuracy as well as the
mechanical properties are affected which shall be shown by
two examples considering a backward can extrusion and a
full forward extrusion process, respectively. Fig. 11 shows
the shape formation of the cup wall of thickness 8 mm
pressed out of a é1.0 mm billet of coarse grain structure.
It can be seen that the formation of the rim is rather irregular
which can be explained by the fact that on different locations
grains of different size and orientation have to pass the
clearance between die and punch which is quite small
compared with the mean grain size, thus yielding inhomo-
geneous material ¯ow and ®nally the observed irregular
shape [15].
Fig. 11. Backward can extruded part, thickness of the wall 8 mm, SEM
picture (left) and cross-sectional micrograph (LFT).
Fig. 12. Irregular hardness distribution of a coarse grained extruded
specimen, initial diameter of 0.5 mm (LFT).
Work hardening is important for the superior mechanical
properties of cold forged parts. It can be characterized by
the hardness distribution which usually re¯ects the well
experienced or theoretically analysed distribution of induced
strain. In the case of micro-forward extrusion of a é0.5 mm
billet the result is quite different as shown in Fig. 12. The
maximum hardness is not found in the regions expected but
obviously assigned to speci®c grains which due to their size,
orientation and location have been deformed most heavily
[15]. That means also that the overall mechanical properties
might be different from part to part due to the random
character of the grain structure.
It should be noted that both phenomena are not observed
in conventional forming. They are more typical for micro-
forming and must be taken into account in assessing the
quality of the product.
Another phenomenon has been observed in air bending
experiments. According to the surface layer model the ¯ow
stresses decrease with miniaturization. As a result, the
bending forces relative to the scale should decrease with
miniaturization. Experiments have shown that this is valid in
most cases, but the model fails when only one single grain is
located over the thickness of the sheet. This effect of ``one
 U. Engel, R. Eckstein / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 125±126 (2002) 35±44
Fig. 13. Bending forces and yield strength in bending tests. Effect of
miniaturization and grain size (LFT, mate).
grainÐhigh forces'' has been observed when scaling down a
process while the grain size was constant (115 mm in Fig. 13,
left-hand side) [7] and also increasing the grain size by heat
treatment while the process dimensions were constant
(Fig. 13, right-hand side) [9]. This contradicts the regular
theory, where the ¯ow stress decreases, when the grain size
increases (Hall±Petch relation). In order to ®nd reasons for
this phenomenon, experiments have been carried out, which
apply the method of optical strain measurement to micro-
forming processes.
Sheets made of CuZn15, 0.5 mm in thickness were bent.
Applying the material in the hard state with ®ne grains (grain
size approx. 10 mm) the deformed area shows a strain
distribution that is typical for the bending process
(Fig. 14): elongated material at the outer radius of the
arc, compressed material at the inner radius and an unde-
formed area in the middle. This layer structure is disturbed
when the material is coarsely grained (grain size approx.
70 mm, Fig. 15), which is caused by the different crystal-
lographic orientation of the grains. Different orientation
could be the reason for the increasing bending forces when
there is only one grain in the normal direction of the surface
of the sheet. When the number of grains is larger, i.e. more
than 1, preferably those with lower resistance against defor-
mation will be elongated. When the number is 1, each single
Fig. 14. Strain distribution of fine grained material (LFT).
41
Fig. 15. Inhomogeneous strain distribution of coarse grained material
(LFT).
grain will be deformed according to the shape of the tool,
regardless of its possibly unfavourable orientation. This
leads to higher forces [17].
A further material phenomenon, which occurs in sheet
metal working processes, is the in¯uence of the sheet
anisotropy on the process. The effect of the anisotropy in
micro-sheet metal blanking processes has been investigated
in connection with the production of lead frames (Fig. 1).
They contain long and narrow slots made by blanking, which
means that the shearing lines have a distinct direction. It has
been shown that the maximum punch force depends on the
angle between the rolling direction and the shearing lines F
(Fig. 16) [18,19]. Furthermore, the anisotropy has an effect
on the material ¯ow during a blanking process: experiments
have been carried out applying punches with rectangular
shape. The width of the punch wP was half the thickness of
the sheet (Fig. 16). This ratio has been investigated, since
narrow slots are typical for lead frames. During the ®rst
phase of the blanking process (until the cutting edge of the
punch has reached about the middle of the sheet), the
material ¯ow causes a lateral expansion D of the material,
de®ned as the increase of the distance between the two
X-marks in Fig. 16. The experiments have shown that D
clearly depends on F. During the second phase (until
material separation takes place) D remains nearly constant.
It should be emphasized that the amount of D is a function of
further material parameters (e.g. recrystallized or hard state)
and must be taken into account when blanking is continued
subsequently in the immediate vicinity.
4. Research in progress
The trend towards even smaller products leads to new
approaches in basic research. Taking up considerations
made in the 1950s in the Bell Telephone Labs, the plastic
deformation should be analysed not only in terms of strain
but also of strain gradients, in particular, when the dimen-
sions of the deformed area are in the range of 10 mm or
smaller [20±23]. In contrast to the effects explained by the
42 U. Engel, R. Eckstein / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 125±126 (2002) 35±44
Fig. 16. Effect of anisotropy on material flow in a blanking process.
surface layer model the forces relative to the scale increase
with miniaturization. This has been observed, for example,
bending nickel foils 50 mm down to 12.5 mm in thickness
[24]. The strain gradient plasticity postulates that the density
of dislocations increases with the strain gradient, which
becomes larger with miniaturization, and therefore the hard-
ening of the material as well.
Since the material behaviour gets worse with miniaturiza-
tion (e.g. worse ductility, increased scatter), new strategies
have to be developed. One idea is warm forming which
combines the bene®ts of cold forming such as high surface
quality and strain hardening and the advantages of hot form-
ing, for example, lower process forces and larger formability.
Additionally, it is assumed that deformation is more homo-
geneous within a warm forming process compared to a cold
forming process, because more slide systems can be activated
at increased temperature. Therefore, scatter should become
smaller. First results obtained in warm compression tests
con®rm these assumptions (Fig. 17) [25].
Up to now, mainly tensile, bending and punching tests
have been carried out in the ®eld of micro-sheet metal
working. By contrast, the micro-deep drawing process
which is more complex since friction and anisotropy have
an increased meaning, was investigated only in a few
projects [26]. Therefore, a new project started recently in
order to examine micro-deep drawing processes with foils
down to 20 mm in thickness applying different materials and
lubricants.
Fig. 17. Warm forging: flow stress and scatter decreasing with temperature
(LFT).
In addition to the forming process itself, the production of
material and manufacturing of specimen and billets, respec-
tively, gains importance. Up to now, sophisticated specimens
made by turning, heat treating, embedding, grinding, polish-
ing and so one have been applied to extrusion experiments.
Obviously, this procedure is not adequate for industrial
needs. An economical production process demands deliver-
ing rates of higher than 300 billets per minute. This can be
realized (as it is done conventionally) by shearing. In case of
producing micro-billets from thin wire special attention has
to be directed to shearing failures like edge draw-in, frac-
tured area and burr, which could affect the extrusion and the
geometrical accuracy of the part. Therefore, the shearing
process and the in¯uence of sheared billets on the extrusion
process will be investigated in a new research project. The
aim is to develop a shearing process that allows the man-
ufacture of billets that are suited for extrusion of micro-
parts. The in¯uence of temperature, punch velocity and
stress state on the shearing process will be investigated.
Problems of tool manufacturing and handling are tackled
in some projects and studies. Conventional methods of tool
manufacturing can be also appliedÐwith restrictionsÐto
microforming tools. Wire EDM applying wires down to
10 mm in diameter enables the production of very narrow
punching and extrusion dies [27]. Smallest punches have
been made by grinding, achieving punch diameters down to
60 mm [1,28], structures with dimensions in the range of
10 mm by laser ablation [29,30]. Electron beam lithography-
etching processes make it possible to create structures even
down to 200 nm in width [3]. Besides tool manufacturing,
handling of microparts is another topic of investigation.
Particularly, part transfer in multi-stage formers demands
 U. Engel, R. Eckstein / Journal of Materials Processing Technology 125±126 (2002) 35±44
fast and accurate positioning of very small parts despite the
unfavourable effect of adhesion between part and gripper.
The result of a research project is a prototype of a transfer
system containing a vacuum gripper that enables the trans-
port of 4.3 parts per second, the transfer length is 25 mm and
the accuracy is 5 mm [31].
Finally, one may ask what has come of the vision of the
super micro-precision press-machine mentioned in the intro-
duction? There is already an answer: in 2000 a Japanese
research group presented a desktop machining microfactory
consisting of machine tools such as a lathe, a milling
machine, handling devices, and a press, ready to produce
miniature parts [32] not yet suited for mass production but
certainly another milestone within the development of
micro-technologies and also for microforming.
5. Conclusion
The conclusion which can be drawn from this review
might be twofold. The speci®c one is that the research of the
last 10 years has substantially contributed to gain funda-
mental insight into the peculiarities of the microforming
process and an improved understanding of the mechanisms
which are the basis to realize ®nally processes of industrial
relevance. Although the break through of microforming in
industrial production is not ®nalized yet the technology
development obviously is on a good way since the ventures
have stimulated so many other activities covering now the
whole system of microforming. These are the optimum
preconditions to come through the problems adequately in
near future.
The more general one is that: although the fast moving
technological world is characterized by many problems
which require short-termed solutions and which the engi-
neering community is in fact able to solve adequately, there
are many ideas which a priori are recognized as not transfer-
able into industrial application in a short period. These
topics need long-termed, basic research and will only suc-
ceed when there are self-multiplying effects of scienti®c
interest, industrial support and many widely distributed
activities picking up the speci®c vision as a challenge which
today mostly demands for an interdisciplinary approach. In
the case of microforming, all these preconditions seem to be
ful®lled already on a quite advanced line. Although, mean-
while there are processes already established in industry
mainly in the sheet metal working area, e.g. for the produc-
tion of lead frames, this technology might enable manufac-
turing of a much wider spectrum of products. Hence, there
still remains a challenge for the metal forming community.
Acknowledgements
All the research done by the LFT was supported by the
German Research Foundation (DFG).
43
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