Plastic injection molding is an important field in manufacturing industry because there are many plastic products that are produced by injection molding. However, the time and cost required for producing a precision mold are the most troublesome problems that limit the application at the development stage of a new product in precision machinery industry. This study presents an approach of manufacturing a hard mold with microfeatures for micro-plastic injection molding. This study also focuses on Taguchi design method for investigating the effect of injection parameters on the dimensional accuracy of Fresnel lens during plastic injection molding. It was found that the dominant factor affecting the microgroove depth of Fresnel lens is packing pressure. The optimum processing parameters are packing pressure of 80 MPa, melt temperature of 240 °C, mold temperature of 90 °C and injection speed of 50 m/s. The dimensional accuracy of Fresnel lens can be controlled within ±3 µm using the optimum level of process parameters through the confirmation test. The research results of this study have industrial application values because electro-optical industries are able to significantly reduce a new optical element development cycle time.
Epoxy resin mold is frequently used as the rapid tooling for low-volume production of samples by plastic injection molding at a new product development stage. However, the lifespan of epoxy resin mold is limited by the mechanical properties of the epoxy resin composites. In this study, zirconia (ZrO 2 ) particles were added into the epoxy resin composites for enhancing the mechanical properties of the epoxy resin mold. It was found that the mechanical properties of the epoxy resin mold can be successfully enhanced, leading to the reduction of the increase of surface roughness of the plastic injection parts. The cost savings of about 77% can be obtained compared to the conventional moldmaking method.
Micro-injection molding or micro-hot embossing is a highly effective process for fabricating micro-devices with microfeatures in polymer. Based on the strong demand on the precision components in the precision machinery industrial, two major concerns are the time and expense required for producing a precision mold for microfabrication. To enhance the competitiveness in the market of micorcomponents, this study presents six approaches for manufacturing precision epoxy resin molds with microfeatures. Evolutions manufacturing processes are described experimentally. Characteristics and applications of micro-featured epoxy resin mold are introduced in detail.
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