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Micro-EDM
Our micro-EDM technology originated during the late 1980’s in a NASA-sponsored project to develop an ammonia evaporator for thermal management aboard the Space Station Freedom. The evaporator relied on droplet impingement cooling to achieve high heat flux and low thermal resistance. Many thousands of small nozzles were required to “print” a thin layer of ammonia over the surface of the evaporator. However, no technology existed at that time for the fabrication of suitably shaped micro-nozzles in metals. Mikros’ micro-EDM technology was developed to meet this need.
Mikros has continued to develop micro-EDM technology and is presently the world leader in fabrication of stainless steel micro-nozzles for industrial ink-jet marking systems. We routinely fabricate nozzle arrays with hundreds or thousands of shaped nozzles with diameters ranging from 30 to 80 microns. The micro-nozzle arrays are machined in thin, free-standing foils, or on foils that are diffusion bonded to thicker substrates with complex internal flow passages.
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