Effects of TiO2 nanoparticle lubricant on micro deep drawing performance

Micro deep drawing is a process to manufacture the thin walled, hollow, box or cup like products at micro scale. Lubricant can affect the products’ quality in micro deep drawing at micro scale due to the decrease of coefficient of friction between the material and tools, it is crucial to enhance the forming efficiency. In this study, 40 µm thickness stainless steel 301 (SUS301) was annealed at 980 ℃ for 2 min under protection of argon gas ambient, and this stainless steel was selected as the specimen material. The micro deep drawing was conducted on a micro press machine under dry and 4% TiO2 nanoparticle lubrication conditions with different forming velocities. The experimental results showed that the micro cup’s profile is affected by changing the forming velocity under the dry and nanoparticle lubrication conditions. Under the dry condition, the surface became rough with the increase of the forming velocity, and then the micro forming efficiency under application of nanoparticle lubricant increases with a rise of drawing velocity.