ADVANCES IN MICRO-MANUFACTURING APPLYING TRIBOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES

Abstract

Micro-manufacturing is a cover term for manufacturing processes applied to products possessing micro- and nano-scopic features. Due to the scaling of surface phenomena, the tribological aspects of such processes are much more dominating and decisive to product functionality than their macroscopic counterparts. The present research focused on recent advances concerning the application of tribological principles to the improvement of micro-manufacturing processes, the development of methods and equipment to study the friction and wear performance of microscopic tribosystems and nanostructured surfaces, to the design and implementation of protective layers as well as to the study of atomistic lubrication mechanisms and surface texturing. First, the trends in micro-manufacturing are presented, followed by an outline of microscale tribology principles and of micromachining and microfabrication tribology. Tribological issues during micro-electro-mechanical (MEMS) operation are also addressed as well as recent advances in surface microengineering and the use of adhesion and friction phenomena as processing tools.