Water-jet cavitation shocking as a novel array micro-forming technique

Micro-feature arrays and large-area complex microscopic features on thin metallic sheet play an important role in micro-components. A novel technique-submerged water-jet cavitation shocking-is presented to generate micro-feature arrays on 304 stainless foils in this paper. High-speed camera shadowgraph images of the cavitation cloud were employed to analyze the impact zone. Then the forming depth, uniformity of forming depth and the thickness distribution of the micro-feature arrays were also studied. The results show that the forming region can be categorized into the jet-impact-zone, the bubble-impact-zone and the periphery-impact-zone radially. Bubble-impact-zone peaks in the depth of array micro-forming. The forming depth increases with time while the uniformity decreases with time. The forming parts have a uniform thickness distribution.

Automated summary

This paper presents a novel technique of submerged water-jet cavitation shocking to generate micro-feature arrays on 304 stainless foils. The forming region is categorized into jet-impact-zone, bubble-impact-zone, and periphery-impact-zone. The depth of array micro-forming peaks in the bubble-impact-zone.