Micro ball-end milling—an emerging manufacturing technology for micro-feature patterns

The demand for complex micro-feature-based miniaturised products has grown over the last few decades due to their higher utility in many fields such as micro-fluidic devices, biomedical devices, orthopaedic implants, automotive industries, aerospace industries, etc. To fulfil the growing demand of these micro-feature-based products, several micromanufacturing techniques have been developed over the years. Micro-end milling is considered to be one of the favourable types among these techniques due to its higher flexibility and applicability over a wide range of materials. This technique is even more prominent when ball-end mill is used as a cutting tool due to its additional ability of finishing complicated surfaces and producing various 3D micro-textured surfaces. The present article provides an inclusive review of the tool fabrication, cutting mechanism, performance analysis, modelling and simulation and industrial applications of micro ball-end milling process. Furthermore, comments on future research scope have been emphasised in the direction of micro ball-end milling of different materials and their applications for producing new products with micro-features.