Surface micro-texturing of metallic cylindrical surface with proximity rolling-exposure lithography and electrochemical micromachining

► A new method is proposed to fabricate large-area 3D microstructures for cylinder. ► A 2D model is established to optimise the parameters of proximity rolling-exposure. ► The exposure time is three to four times longer than that for a planar layer. ► Increasing the number of exposures or feature sizes will decrease relative errors. ► Ordered microstructures with a feature size of 40 μm are obtained on cylinder.