Micro-texturing onto amorphous carbon materials as a mold-die for micro-forming

Among various kinds of carbon materials, two types of amorphous carbon were employed as a mold-die material for micro-forming. Diamond like carbon (DLC) has sufficient strength and toughness as a protective coating onto the steel and WC (Co) substrates. Glassy carbon is a solid material which also has high strength even at the elevated temperature under inert gas atmosphere. These two materials are selected to fabricate the micro-textured mold-die as a mother tool to duplicate this micro-textured pattern onto the metallic and polymer sheets via table-top CNC micro-forming systems. High density oxygen-plasma etching and pico-second laser machining were developed to make micro-texturing onto the above two mold-die materials. In the former, micro-groove and micro-grid patterns were formed on the DLC coating; table-top CNC stamping system with CNC-feeder and cropper was used to duplicate these patterns onto the aluminum sheets in dry and at the room temperature. In the latter, micro-wedge patterns were imprinted onto the glassy carbon substrate; table-top CNC mold-stamping system with heating equipment was utilized for duplication of these patterns onto thermoplastic polymer sheets above the glass transition temperature. Formation of micro-textures onto these amorphous carbon materials provides us a new tool to fabricate the micro-patterned parts and devices in mass production via cold and hot stamping processes.