Investigation on the effectiveness of through-hole replicas of deep small holes

When a micro-hole of high aspect-ratio is required, in addition to machining problems, special attention should be paid to controlling the quality of the manufactured products. Dimensional and surface metrology in the field of micromachining can be as critical as machining itself, therefore several new measurement methods have been developed. However, many of these methods suffer from application limits when used in the case of a deep hole. Replication can be a useful approach, which has well-proven validity in the time-consuming case of the sectioned hole. The method of through replicas, to be pulled out of the unsectioned hole, still needs verification. In the present paper, the surface roughness of deep small electrodischarge drilled holes is measured, and the effectiveness of the use of both open- and through-replicas is evaluated, versus direct measurements on the microdrilled surfaces. Through-hole replicas, by means of injection and extraction of a silicone, are proven reliable for reproducing the surface morphology of holes down to 0.8 mm diameter with an aspect ratio of 12.5. The findings show that the operative range of the considered techniques may be extended with respect to the previous cases mentioned in literature.