Performance characterization of Bi2O3/Al nanoenergetics blasted micro-forming system

This paper reports a novel micro-blast driven manufacturing process for micro-forming of Aluminum foils. The micro-blast is realized by using a nanoenergetic material system comprising of Bi2O3 micro-rods and aluminum particles. There is an enhanced need of forming of thin aluminum foil structures in small regions from point of view of drug packaging etc. The process developed caters to this need by using a single shot forming process using a micro-blast source. The micro-blast that is generated from an energetic composite system is made highly tunable by modulating the peak pressure generated through the blasting process and their impact in micro-forming of thin aluminum foils is observed through parametric studies. The engineering challenge involved in these experiments is to tune the blast pressure properties in order to address the forming of thin metal sheets with limiting boundary values as defined by the failure criteria. A variety of characterization techniques related to a thorough analysis of the synthesized material viz. X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) etc. are used to tune the functional properties like gauge blast pressure etc. of material system. We have found a material system that can generate a maximum peak pressure of 73.8 MPa with pressurization rate of 2460 GPa s−1 and that is able to accomplish micro-forming on thin metal foils (around 0.3 mm thickness). Experimental investigations demonstrate that tunabilty aspect of the energetic composites when exercised can enable variant processes such as embossing, coining, drilling etc. which may be of significant utility to drug packaging industries. A proper mathematical modeling of the forming process and critical process parameters therein have also been detailed.