Fabrication of 3D metal micro-mold based on femtosecond laser cutting and micro-electric resistance slip welding

This paper proposes a novel fabrication process based on femtosecond laser cutting and micro-electric resistance slip welding to address the bottleneck presented by ultraviolet–Lithographie, Galvanoformung, Abformung combined with micro-electroforming, in which micro-molds are usually fabricated with vertical wall structures. At first, 10-μm thick 0Cr18Ni9 stainless steel foils were cut by femtosecond laser to obtain several single-layer graphics which were then joined by micro-electric resistance slip welding. The slip welding process formed a 3D micro-structure and the weld zone of micro-structure was tested by the X-ray diffraction (XRD). The XRD results show that the phases of weld zone remain unchanged, but that the phase content slightly changes. Finally, a 3D metal micro-structure mold was processed under 110 mW femtosecond laser power, 0.1 mm/s cutting speed, 0.21 V welding voltage, 10 ms welding time, 0.2 MPa welding pressure, 0.5 mm bar electrode diameter, 160 time’s slip welding discharge, which proves that the forming process could be a useful method for the production of 3D micro-molds.