5-axis Milling for Micro-machining of Implantable Flow Sensor

5 axis milling is a manufacturing process utilizing CNC technology. It has been widely supported as an effective tool for micro machining throughout multiple industries. In medical manufacturing specifically, there is a large demand for high accuracy at the microscale level as the geometries of medical devices are often highly complex. 5-axis milling offers the means to develop such complex features including curved faces and steep walls. This thesis covers the conversion of a generic 3-axis milling machine into a 5-axis machine. Through testing, the modified device effectively demonstrated its ability to run 5-axis tool paths required for complex designs. As it is still in the development stage, errors in the generated machine code highlighted disagreement between the CAM software and machine geometries which will be addressed in the future. The thesis provides insight into the practicality of modifying a generic 3-axis milling machine into a 5-axis milling machine. With many applications including the machining of a Senior Design team’s implantable sensor, 5 axis mills such as the one developed in this thesis are clearly effective tools for medical device development