Effect of Micro-Injection Molding Processing Conditions on the Replication and Consistency of a Dense Network of High Aspect Ratio Microstructures

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
John W. Rodgers ◽  
Meghan E. Casey ◽  
Sabrina S. Jedlicka ◽  
John P. Coulter

When molding macroscale polymer parts with a high density of microfeatures (>1 × 106/cm2), a concern that presents itself is the ability to achieve uniform replication across the entire domain. In the given study, micro-injection molding was used to manufacture microfeatured polymer substrates containing over 10 × 106 microfeatures per cm2. Polystyrene (PS) plates containing microtopography were molded using different processing parameters to study the effect of flow rate and mold temperature on replication quality and uniformity. Flow rate was found to significantly affect replication at mold temperatures above the glass transition temperature (Tg) of PS while having no significant effect on filling at mold temperatures below Tg. Moreover, replication was dependent on distance from the main cavity entrance, with increased flow rate facilitating higher replication differentials and higher replication near the gate. Simulation of the molding process was used to corroborate experimental trials. A deeper understanding of polymer fluid behavior associated with micro-injection molding is vital to reliably manufacture parts containing consistent microtopography (Note: Values are expressed in average ± standard error).

2013 ◽  
Vol 561 ◽  
pp. 239-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yong Nie ◽  
Hui Min Zhang ◽  
Jia Teng Niu

This article is using Moldflow analysis and orthogonal experimental method during the whole experiment. The injection molding process of motor cover is simulated under various technological conditions.After forming the maximum amount of warpage of plastic parts for evaluation.According to the range analysis of the comprehensive goal, the extent of the overall influence to the processing parameters, such as gate location, melt temperature, mold temperature and holding pressure is clarified.Through analyzing the diagrams of influential factors resulted from the simulation result,the optimized process parameter scheme is obtained and further verified by simulation.


Author(s):  
Catalin Fetecau ◽  
Ion Postolache ◽  
Felicia Stan

The research presented in this paper involves numerical and experimental efforts to investigate the relative thin-wall injection molding process in order to obtain high dimensional quality complex parts. To better understand the effects of various processing parameters (the filling time, injection pressure, the melting temperature, the mold temperature) on the injection molding of a thin-wall complex part, the molding experiments are regenerated into the computer model using the Moldflow Plastics Insight (MPI) 6.1 software. The computer visualization of the filling phase allows accurate prediction of the location of the flow front, welding lines and air traps. Furthermore, in order to optimize the injection molding process, the effects of the geometry of the runner system on the filling and packing phases are also investigated. It is shown that computational modeling could be used to help the process and mold designer to produce accurate parts.


2013 ◽  
Vol 347-350 ◽  
pp. 1163-1167
Author(s):  
Ling Bai ◽  
Hai Ying Zhang ◽  
Wen Liu

Moldflow software was used to obtain the best gate location and count. Influence of injection molding processing parameters on sink marks of injection-piece was studied based on orthogonal test. The effects of different process parameters were analyzed and better process parameters were obtained. Results of research show that decreasing melt temperature, mold temperature, the increasing injection time and packing pressure can effectively reduce the sink marks index.


2010 ◽  
Vol 37-38 ◽  
pp. 570-575 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bao Shou Sun ◽  
Zhe Chen ◽  
Bo Qin Gu ◽  
Xiao Diao Huang

To optimize injection molding warpage, this paper applies the uniform design of experiment method to search for the optimal injection molding processing parameters. The warpage. simulation analysis is accomplished by emplying Moldflow software. The melt temperature, mold temperature, injection time and packing pressure are regarded as processing parameters, and processing parameters are optimized through establishing a regression equation, and the optimization result and influence factors are analyzed. The results show that uniform design of experiment can reduce number of experiments used effectively and the quality of the product is greatly improved by the optimization method.


2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rossella Surace ◽  
Vincenzo Bellantone ◽  
Gianluca Trotta ◽  
Vito Basile ◽  
Francesco Modica ◽  
...  

This paper reports on design, fabrication, and characterization of a microfilter to be used in biomedical applications. The microfilter, with mesh of 80 μm, is fabricated by micro-injection molding process in polymeric material (polyoxymethylene (POM)) using a steel mold manufactured by micro-electrical discharge machining process. The characteristics of the filter are investigated by numerical simulation in order to define a suitable geometry for micro-injection molding. Then, different process configurations of parameters (melt temperature, injection velocity, mold temperature, holding pressure and time, cooling time, pressure limit) are tested in order to obtain the complete part filling via micro-injection molding process preventing any defects. Finally, the component is dimensionally characterized and the process parameters optimized to obtain the maximum filtration capacity.


2007 ◽  
Vol 364-366 ◽  
pp. 53-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yung Kang Shen ◽  
Yi Lin ◽  
Jeou Long Lee ◽  
Fwu Hsing Liu ◽  
Chih Wei Wu ◽  
...  

This research first indicates the melt front delay of wedge-shaped lightguiding plate of backlight module on micro injection molding. This research fabricated the patterns of mold insert of lightguiding plate by photo etching process. The micro-facture of lightguiding plate was manufactured by micro injection molding. The lightguiding plate of backlight module was used for the PMMA material. The single parameter method was used to discuss the flatness and replication properties for different processing parameters (mold temperature, melt temperature, packing pressure, packing time and injection pressure). The results show that there are melt front delays due to the slow injection velocity, the low temperature induced by the little effect of shear heating, the high viscosity, the large flow resistance and the slow flow velocity. The mold temperature is the most important factor for the flatness and the replication of micro-feature of liughtguiding plate. Lower mold temperature induces better flatness properties. The surface roughness of micro-facture of lightguiding plate is 8.8 nm on micro injection molding for this work.


Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 965 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nguyen Truong Giang ◽  
Pham Son Minh ◽  
Tran Anh Son ◽  
Tran Minh The Uyen ◽  
Thanh-Hai Nguyen ◽  
...  

In the injection molding field, the flow of plastic material is one of the most important issues, especially regarding the ability of melted plastic to fill the thin walls of products. To improve the melt flow length, a high mold temperature was applied with pre-heating of the cavity surface. In this paper, we present our research on the injection molding process with pre-heating by external gas-assisted mold temperature control. After this, we observed an improvement in the melt flow length into thin-walled products due to the high mold temperature during the filling step. In addition, to develop the heating efficiency, a flow focusing device (FFD) was applied and verified. The simulations and experiments were carried out within an air temperature of 400 °C and heating time of 20 s to investigate a flow focusing device to assist with external gas-assisted mold temperature control (Ex-GMTC), with the application of various FFD types for the temperature distribution of the insert plate. The heating process was applied for a simple insert model with dimensions of 50 mm × 50 mm × 2 mm, in order to verify the influence of the FFD geometry on the heating result. After that, Ex-GMTC with the assistance of FFD was carried out for a mold-reading process, and the FFD influence was estimated by the mold heating result and the improvement of the melt flow length using acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS). The results show that the air sprue gap (h) significantly affects the temperature of the insert and an air sprue gap of 3 mm gives the best heating rate, with the highest temperature being 321.2 °C. Likewise, the actual results show that the height of the flow focusing device (V) also influences the temperature of the insert plate and that a 5 mm high FFD gives the best results with a maximum temperature of 332.3 °C. Moreover, the heating efficiency when using FFD is always higher than without FFD. After examining the effect of FFD, its application was considered, in order to improve the melt flow length in injection molding, which increased from 38.6 to 170 mm, while the balance of the melt filling was also clearly improved.


2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Seong Ying Choi ◽  
Nan Zhang ◽  
J. P. Toner ◽  
G. Dunne ◽  
Michael D. Gilchrist

Vacuum venting is a method proposed to improve feature replication in microparts that are fabricated using micro-injection molding (MIM). A qualitative and quantitative study has been carried out to investigate the effect of vacuum venting on the nano/microfeature replication in MIM. Anodized aluminum oxide (AAO) containing nanofeatures and a bulk metallic glass (BMG) tool mold containing microfeatures were used as mold inserts. The effect of vacuum pressure at constant vacuum time, and of vacuum time at constant vacuum pressure on the replication of these features is investigated. It is found that vacuum venting qualitatively enhances the nanoscale feature definition as well as increases the area of feature replication. In the quantitative study, higher aspect ratio (AR) features can be replicated more effectively using vacuum venting. Increasing both vacuum pressure and vacuum time are found to improve the depth of replication, with the vacuum pressure having more influence. Feature orientation and final sample shape could affect the absolute depth of replication of a particular feature within the sample.


2006 ◽  
Vol 505-507 ◽  
pp. 229-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yung Kang Shen ◽  
H.J. Chang ◽  
C.T. Lin

The purpose of this paper presents the optical properties of microstructure of lightguiding plate for micro injection molding (MIM) and micro injection-compression molding (MICM). The lightguiding plate is applied on LCD of two inch of digital camera. Its radius of microstructure is from 100μm to 300μm by linearity expansion. The material of lightguiding plate uses the PMMA plastic. This paper uses the luminance distribution to make a comparison between MIM and MICM for the optical properties of lightguiding plate. The important parameters of process for optical properties are the mold temperature, melt temperature and packing pressure in micro injection molding. The important parameters of process for optical properties are the compression distance, mold temperature and compression speed in micro injection-compression molding. The process of micro injection-compression molding is better than micro injection molding for optical properties.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document