Recent Development in Micromanufacturing of Metallic Materials.

Product miniaturization is a trend for facilitating product usage, enabling product functions to be implemented in microscale geometries, and aimed at reducing product weight, volume, cost and pollution. Driven by ongoing miniaturization in diverse areas including medical devices, precision equipment, communication devices, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) and microsystems technology (MST), the demands for micro metallic products have increased tremendously. Such a trend requires development of advanced micromanufacturing technology of metallic materials for producing high-quality micro metallic products that possess excellent dimensional tolerances, required mechanical properties and improved surface quality. Micromanufacturing differs from conventional manufacturing technology in terms of materials, processes, tools, and machines and equipment, due to the miniaturization nature of the whole micromanufacturing system, which challenges the rapid development of micromanufacturing technology. Against such a background, the Special Issue "Micromanufacturing of Metallic Materials" was proposed to present the recent developments of micromanufacturing technologies of metallic materials. The papers collected in the Special Issue include research articles, literature review and technical notes, which have been highlighted in this editorial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]