Efficient and precise micro-injection molding of micro-structured polymer parts using micro-machined mold core by WEDM

14Citations
Citations of this article
14Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.

Abstract

In this paper, micro-structured polymer parts were efficiently and accurately fabricated by micro-injection molding using a micro-structured mold core machined by wire electrical discharge machining (WEDM). The objective was to realize low-cost mass production and manufacturing of micro-structured polymer products. The regular micro-structured mold core was manufactured by precise WEDM. The micro-structured polymer workpieces were rapidly fabricated by micro-injection molding and the effects of the micro-injection molding process parameters on replication rate and surface roughness of micro-structured polymers were systematically investigated and analyzed. It is shown that the micro-structured polymer can be rapidly and precisely fabricated by the proposed method. The experimental results show the minimum size machining error of the micro-structured mold core and the maximum replication rate of micro-formed polymer were 0.394% and 99.12%, respectively. Meanwhile, the optimal micro-injection molding parameters, namely, jet temperature, melt temperature, injection velocity, holding pressure and holding time were 195 °C, 210 °C, 40 mm/min, 7 Mpa and 5 s, respectively. The surface roughness Ra at the groove bottom and top of the micro-structured polymer workpieces achieved minimum values of 0.805 μm and 0.972 μm, respectively.

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Liao, Q., Zhou, C., Lu, Y., Wu, X., Chen, F., & Lou, Y. (2019). Efficient and precise micro-injection molding of micro-structured polymer parts using micro-machined mold core by WEDM. Polymers, 11(10). https://doi.org/10.3390/polym11101591

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free