Coining of Thin Plates to Produce Micro Channel Structures

Increasing miniaturization of production systems and products demands an expanding availability of metal forming technologies towards very small scale products and microscopic geometric details. A typical example are thin plates (thickness < 1 mm) with microscopic channel structures, which are required for micro heat exchangers, chemical micro reactors or other applications. In coining experiments sheet specimens from 0.5 to 0.8 mm thickness have been used to produce rib type channel structures with 0.4 mm width of the ribs as well as of the channels. The remaining thickness at the channels is about 0.3 – 0.6 mm, depending on the initial sheet thickness. The experimental results are compared to finite element simulations.