International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering Website: www.ijetae.com (ISSN 2250-2459, ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal, Volume 3, Issue 10, October 2013) 202 FE Analysis of Positioning Slides of Micro Milling Machine Sushant Thambkar 1 , Bhagyesh Deshmukh 2 1,2 Walchand Institute of Technology, Solapur, India. Abstract— Micro milling is one of the essential machine tool in development of the micro systems. However use of such intricate and complex components increases the cost of machine. In retrofit approach, components are selected from salvage considering its sustainability in terms of topology, accuracy and repeatability to build a 3-axis Micro milling machine. However performance obtained from such system depends upon various parameters. The slides used in machines may be associated with undesired deflections due to cutting and operating forces thereby affecting the performance obtained. In order to estimate the deflections at static conditions, analytical solution is obtained and so as to validate the analytical results, simulation is carried out. This analysis is carried out on X-Y slide and it is observed that the deflections are well within the range and results of analytical solution and simulation are in very close agreement. Keywords— Micro milling machine, deflection, analytical solution, FEA. I. INTRODUCTION Need of miniaturization has initiated the development of micro machine. Machining at a scale of micrometer has demanded the accuracy and high resolution that can be offered by machine tools. Accuracy of machined components developed using Micro milling machine is affected by machine bed, spindle system, drive systems and controller incorporated. Machine bed and spindle system are major elements influences the performance obtained from Micro mill. Vertical configuration of machine bed is preferred as it distributes the weight in straight line towards gravity and can offer greater stability. Intricate and complex components such as air bearing spindle system driven by DC brushless motor, Linear stages drive with aerostatic bearing and linear motor with direct drive technology system are important technological aspects of Micro mill. Typical machines involve precision slides, aerostatic bearing etc. which are costlier due to technology involved. A different concept of micro milling machine is developed by reuse of components The design of Micro milling machine using components selected from salvage has a work table of 19 X 19 X 25 mm with resolution of 0.1 μm. X-Y-Z slides to be used are of make PI. A controller along with these slides is used to control 3 axes of machine. The slide being the critical component is to be tested for deflection/deformation in order to ascertain the performance. Analytical solution is obtained for the deflection and is validated using simulation. II. LITERATURE Mechanical machining processes such as cutting, grinding, drilling, and polishing have been playing an important role in manufacturing work pieces and have allowed for more precision machining. Micro milling using end mills of diameters in the sub-millimeter range, a process of creating features measured in micrometers, is rapidly growing in advanced industries [1]. The micro milling process is a flexible process and is able to create more complex microstructures where the surface topography and cutting forces are dependent upon the cutting parameters. The cutting force is one of the most representative process variable which allows a judgement and explanation of basic phenomenon in machining processes. Examples are the wear behaviour, the calculation of the energy quotas in tool, chip and workpiece, the setting of optimized input variables or the predicting of the workpiece quality. Also for the design of machine tools the knowledge of static and dynamic cutting forces is of major importance [2]. The cutting forces that developed are very small as compared to conventional machining during micro machining. Cheng-Zhe Jin et al experimented characteristics of cutting forces in Micro milling machine. Figure 1 shows the relationship between the experimental feed direction and the normal direction cutting forces at the spindle speed of 120,000 rpm. Figure 1 Relation between Feed/tooth v/s Cutting forces [1]