The Investigation of the First Order Size Effect in Micro-Plastic Forming

With the rapid development of MEMS and electronic industry, the demands for micro-parts are increasing gradually. However, size effects make the traditional forming theories and deformation mechanism not suitable in micro forming field. In this paper, we introduced the classification of the size effects. It pointed out that the size effects can be divided into the first order and the second order size effects in the micro-forming. For the first order size effects, the theory model was established based on the surface layer model. It also clarified the phenomenon that flow stress of the blank reduced with the increase of the ratio of grain size and thickness (t decreases or d increases). Finally, the model was verified with the experimental results of the first order size effects in the references, confirming the effectiveness of the theoretical model. It provides a method to theoretically and experimentally study the micro-plastic forming.