Direct Bonding of Small Parts by Means of V-Shaped Microgrooves

Accurate Positioning by Means of Two Directional Microgrooves

Abstract

The study proposes a new method to accurately bond two small parts without any adhesives by makinguse of ultraprecision V-shaped microgrooves created on the surfaces of each part. These V-shaped microgrooves, whose depth and dihedral angle are 20μm and 13 degree respectively, allow small parts to be tightly bonded together with high positioning accuracy dueto a wedge effect and an adhesion phenomenon between two mating surfaces. In the study, ultraprecision V-shaped microgrooves having two different directions are created by using an ultraprecision machining center with 1 nm positioning resolution and a single crystal diamond milling cutter. From experimental results, small parts of 4 mm x 4 mm x 4 mm that have V-shaped micro-grooves in two directions could be tightly bonded with 0.380 mm positioning accuracy. In addition, the new method has a possibility to bond different materials with each other. Two small parts with V-shaped microgrooves that are made of oxygen-free copper and aluminum are subjected to bonding test. The test shows the accurate and strong bonded result. As a result, the proposed bonding method is found to be effective to connect small parts accurately.