Micro-cutting of steel to meet new requirements in miniaturization

Due to its hardness, single crystal diamond is the preferred tool material for micro-cutting. As diamond has a very high affinity to iron, micro-cutting is mostly limited to the machining of non-ferrous materials like brass, aluminum, copper or electroless nickel. The particular material properties of steel make it a very important material for extending the field of micro-technology applications. This paper discusses the prerequisites for the micro-cutting of steel using tungsten carbide tools and the interaction between the properties of the materials and the process parameters on the manufacturing result. Further fields of research are identified. The possibilities of this approach are exemplified on microstructured molds.