Evaluation of surface roughness and geometrical characteristic of additive manufacturing inserts for precision injection moulding

Abstract

In order to use additive manufacturing (AM) processes for producing complex feature geometries and benefiting from the possibility of manufacturing large series by using medium/high production techniques, the repeatability of the AM process and accuracy assessments is a critical aspect to be considered in the polymer insert printing and it's integration into the injection moulding process chains. This study investigates the AM tool inserts and injection moulded parts in terms of surface roughness and geometrical accuracy prior and after injection moulding. The vat photopolymerization method was used to produce additively manufactured tool inserts. The insert was designed in a way to involve several miniaturized features with different shapes in order to evaluate the process repeatability over a large variety of geometries, dimensions and aspect ratios.