Product miniaturization is a long-term trend. Mechanical micro-machining is a suitable technique for manufacturing of microstructures characterized by cheap equipments, less working time, and possible complex geometry. For the requirements for high precision manufacture, the use of minimum/minimal quantity lubrication (MQL) is a good strategy for micro-machining due to long tool life and high product accuracy. This study presents an experimental investigation of the MQL in micro milling. The tool wear, surface roughness, and burr formation are observed at different feeds (1 £gm/rev, 1.5 £gm/rev, and 2 £gm/rev) and cutting speeds ( 37.7 m/min, 56.55 m/min, and 75.4 m/min) under dry and MQL cutting. Unlike conventional milling, greater tool wear is observed at lower feeds. Compared with the same cutting condition for dry cutting (feed 2 £gm/rev, cutting speed 56.55 m/min), MQL can reduce the tool wear about 56%. In terms of the consumption of the cutting fluid, oil flow rate of 1.88 ml/h is sufficient for reducing the tool wear in micro milling. According to the experimental results, deterioration of surface finish and burr formation are closely related to the tool wear. The use of MQL, not only reduces the tool wear, but also diminishes the deterioration of surface finish (the improvement of Ra is at least 0.6 £gm) and the burr formation.

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Elastohydrodynamic lubrication (EHL) allows transfer of power and forces in gears and rolling bearings without surface-to-surface contact and is the basis for a continuously variable transmission studied in this report. Previous research constructed models and derived solution methods, but often lacked full explanations of the approach and was usually applied to limited and specific cases. This report precisely develops the numerical solution of EHL contact and includes the more general cases of elliptical contacts and side-slip. The model and numerical method are validated on known benchmark cases and test results. Side-slip is investigated and the results shown in this report. Finally, the model is used to determine the film thickness and pressure of a contact patch under identical conditions to that in a physical drive developed by Fallbrook Technologies in Austin, TX. A minimum film thickness of 0.8978 [mu]m is found, setting a benchmark for the maximum allowable surface roughness values to prevent surface-to-surface contact. Additionally, under normal drive conditions the film thickness to surface roughness ratio is in the range of ideal values for maximum life. / text

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Theoretical and experimental results show that the performance of a load-bearing surface in hydrodynamic lubrication may be enhanced by engineering a definable surface texture onto the surface. These surface textures are in the form of protrusions (positive asperities) or cavities (negative asperities) of known size and geometry. The benefits of such surface textures include lower friction torque, higher load capacity and lower operating temperatures. This Thesis details a fabrication process to manufacture such surface textures/asperities on flat surfaces. The asperities are fabricated using a UV photolithography process followed by electroplating. A complete surface characterization is done to evaluate the effectiveness of the manufacturing process. From the characterization results, some errors in asperity geometry are identified and statistically quantified. These errors are found to be normally distributed and the random surface roughness is 1 to 3 orders of magnitude less than the deterministic feature size. The accuracy of the manufacturing process for fabricating the asperities was found to lie within 6.5 % of the desired value over all the errors studied. Finally, a sensitivity analysis is done to theoretically evaluate the effect of some of these errors in the hydrodynamic lubrication regime.

In order to achieve enhanced and cost-effective performance of engineering components, Surface Engineering embraces traditional and innovative surface technologies which modify the surface properties of metallic and non-metallic engineering components for specific and sometime unique engineering purposes. The surface roughness of an engineered surface may be classified as: the random surface roughness which is a product of surface finishing and the deterministic surface roughness which is engineered to increase the lubrication characteristics of the hydro dynamically lubricated thrust ring. The effect of stochastic/random roughness can not be ignored when the roughness is of the same amplitude as that of fluid film thickness. Average flow model derived in terms of flow factors which are functions of the roughness characteristics is used to study the random surface roughness effects on hydrodynamic lubrication of deterministic asperity. In addition, the effect of boundary conditions on flow factors is studied by calculating the pressure and shear flow factor using two different new boundary conditions. The results are obtained for random surface roughness having a Gaussian distribution of roughness heights.

Numerous engineering applications have been proposed to exploit the load-carrying and non-contact nature of noncoalescing and nonwetting systems. One such application is a lab-on-a-chip , or LOC, in which liquid samples would be delivered from point-to-point by sliding over a film of air without requiring either the large driving forces required to pump liquid through a microchannel or liquid-solid contact that could lead to sample-to-sample contamination. Due to the axisymmetry of the flow fields in both the lubricating gas and droplet associated with a stationary nonwetting droplet, such a situation has a vanishing coefficient of static friction. However, once motion is imparted, droplet deformation requires that a force be applied to sustain such motion. The program of research in this dissertation focuses on investigating the lubrication force between a drop of silicone oil and a moving unwetted substrate due to the presence of a gas lubricating film driven by a rotating disk. The frictional (or lubrication) force was measured using an optical-lever technique as a function of: (1) linear velocity of the moving solid; (2) relative displacement of the drop toward the solid; (3) drop volume; and (4) viscosity. The data reveal an increase in magnitude of the measured force with either increasing relative squeezing of the drop against the glass or increasing speed of the rotating disk. Contrary to initial expectations, no pattern could be isolated regarding drop volume or viscosity of the oil. The experimental data collected will serve to validate numerical work as further models are developed.