Yes / Micro-injection moulding (μIM) stands out as preferable technology to enable the mass production of polymeric
components with micro- and nano-structured surfaces. One of the major challenges of these processes is related
to the quality assurance of the manufactured surfaces: the time needed to perform accurate 3D surface acquisitions
is typically much longer than a single moulding cycle, thus making impossible to integrate in-line
measurements in the process chain. In this work, the authors proposed a novel solution to this problem by
defining a process monitoring strategy aiming at linking sensitive in-line monitored process variables with the
replication quality. A nano-structured surface for antibacterial applications was manufactured on a metal insert
by laser structuring and replicated using two different polymers, polyoxymethylene (POM) and polycarbonate
(PC). The replication accuracy was determined using a laser scanning confocal microscope and its dependence
on the variation of the main μIM parameters was studied using a Design of Experiments (DoE) experimental
approach. During each process cycle, the temperature distribution of the polymer inside the cavity was measured
using a high-speed infrared camera by means of a sapphire window mounted in the movable plate of the mould.
The temperature measurements showed a high level of correlation with the replication performance of the μIM
process, thus providing a fast and effective way to control the quality of the moulded surfaces in-line. / MICROMAN project (“Process Fingerprint for Zero-defect Net-shape MICRO MANufacturing”, http://www.microman.mek.dtu.dk/) - H2020 (Project ID: 674801), H2020 agreement No. 766871 (HIMALAIA), H2020 ITN Laser4Fun (agreement No. 675063)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BRADFORD/oai:bradscholars.brad.ac.uk:10454/17436 |
| Date | 22 October 2019 |
| Creators | Baruffi, F., Gülçür, Mert,, Calaon, M., Romano, J.-M., Penchev, P., Dimov, S., Whiteside, Benjamin R., Tosello, G. |
| Source Sets | Bradford Scholars |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Article, Accepted manuscript |
| Rights | © 2019 Elsevier. Reproduced in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) |
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