Investigating micro spherical stylus tips fabrication by electro chemical and single pulse electro discharge processes

摘要

Micro spherical stylus tip plays an important role in micro coordinate measuring machine (CMM) metrology. A micro CMM needs a tiny spherical stylus tip with diameter less than 0.125 mm to measure micro components such as micro slots, micro holes, and micro gears. With combination WEDG technology and one pulse electro discharge (OPED) process, micro spherical stylus tips with 60 μm in diameter has been fabricated successfully. However the time consuming of a long micro electrode tool fabrication is still a critical problem by WEDG technology. In order to fabricate micro ball-ended stylus tips more efficiency, this study presents a new hybrid process with combination micro ECM and OPED to produce micro spherical stylus tips for micro CMM's probing heads. To fabricate high quality spherical stylus tips, the parameters of micro ECM and OPED such as feeding speed, concentration of electrolyte, and pulse duration will be also investigated in this study. It is expected that micro spherical stylus for CMM's probing heads could be fabricated more efficiency by this hybrid machining process.