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Mechanical durability of hydrophobic surfaces fabricated by injection moulding of laser-induced textures

Yes / The paper reports an investigation on the mechanical durability of textured thermoplastic surfaces together with their respective wetting properties. A range of laser-induced topographies with different aspect ratios from micro to nanoscale were fabricated on tool steel inserts using an ultrashort pulsed near infrared laser. Then, through micro-injection moulding the topographies were replicated onto polypropylene surfaces and their durability was studied systematically. In particular, the evolution of topographies on textured thermoplastic surfaces together with their wetting properties were investigated after undergoing a controlled mechanical abrasion, i.e. reciprocating dry and wet cleaning cycles. The obtained empirical data was used both to study the effects of cleaning cycles and also to identify cleaning procedures with a minimal impact on textured thermoplastic surfaces and their respective wetting properties. In addition, the use of 3D areal parameters that are standardised and could be obtained readily with any state-of-the-art surface characterisation system are discussed for monitoring the surfaces' functional response. / European Commission H2020 ITN programme “European ESRs Network on Short Pulsed Laser Micro/Nanostructuring of Surfaces for Improved Functional Applications” (Laser4Fun) under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 675063 (www.laser4fun.eu) and the UKIERI DST programme “Surface functionalisation for food, packaging, and healthcare applications”. In addition, the work was supported by three other H2020 programmes, i.e. the projects on “Modular laser based additive manufacturing platform for large scale industrial applications” (MAESTRO), “High-Impact Injection Moulding Platform for mass-production of 3D and/or large micro-structured surfaces with Antimicrobial, Self-cleaning, Anti-scratch, Anti-squeak and Aesthetic functionalities” (HIMALAIA) and “Process Fingerprint for Zero-defect Net-shape Micromanufacturing” (MICROMAN).

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:BRADFORD/oai:bradscholars.brad.ac.uk:10454/16896
Date22 January 2019
CreatorsRomano, J.-M., Gülçür, Mert,, Garcia-Giron, A., Martinez-Solanas, E., Whiteside, Benjamin R., Dimov, S.S.
Source SetsBradford Scholars
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeArticle, Accepted manuscript
Rights© 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 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.

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