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.
Highlights
Surfaces with micro/nano features on polymer components have been widely used in optical displays, microfluidic chips, cell and tissue cultures, and other roles [1,2,3,4]
Compared with the unprocessed surface, the micro-structured surface exhibited a wavier spectrum, especially for the vibrational modes ranging from 450 cm−1 to 750 cm−1, which indicated the existence of titanium carbide [24]
Compared with the peaks assigned to Ti3 SiC2, the peaks assigned to the impurity were relatively lower than the former, indicating that the decomposition of Ti3 SiC2 on the micro-structured surface was limited
Summary
Surfaces with micro/nano features on polymer components have been widely used in optical displays, microfluidic chips, cell and tissue cultures, and other roles [1,2,3,4]. A distribution expression of microprism was designed on the bottom surface of an integrated light guide plate (ILGP). The simulation results showed that the luminance uniformities of the integrated backlight modules (BLMs) were higher than 85% [1]. A microfluidic chip combining poly-DL-lactide (PLA) patterned electrospun fibers with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) was successfully developed by lithography to realize toxicity screening of nanoparticles [2]. A 3D artificial polymeric scaffold with sub-micrometer spatial resolution was fabricated to promote cell growth and tissue expansion [3].
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