Manufacture and application of ultra-small micro end mills

The use of micro parts and micro structured elements has constantly grown over the past decade. Milling with micro end-mills belongs to the manufacturing technologies which offer a high potential for competitive micro machining. However, the design criteria for the micro end-mills and their manufacture pose many challenges. In this paper, first the design and manufacture of single-edge micro end-mills with diameters between 10 and 50 μm and a variable helix angle is described. Second, the use of these end-mills in titanium and polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) is described to demonstrate their potential.