The use of microfeature-enabled devices, such as microfluidic platforms and anti-fouling surfaces, has grown in both potential and application in recent years. Injection molding is an attractive method of manufacturing these devices due to its excellent process throughput and commodity-priced raw materials. Still, the manufacture of micro-structured tooling remains a slow and expensive endeavor. This work investigated the feasibility of utilizing additive manufacturing, specifically a Digital Light Processing (DLP)-based inverted stereolithography process, to produce thermoset polymer-based tooling for micro injection molding. Inserts were created with an array of 100-μm wide micro-features, having different heights and thus aspect ratios. These inserts were molded with high flow polypropylene to investigate print process resolution capabilities, channel replication abilities, and insert wear and longevity. Samples were characterized using contact profilometry as well as optical and scanning electron microscopies. Overall, the inserts exhibited a maximum lifetime of 78 molding cycles and failed by cracking of the entire insert. Damage was observed for the higher aspect ratio features but not the lower aspect ratio features. The effect of the tool material on mold temperature distribution was modeled to analyze the impact of processing and mold design.
The high impact strength of polycarbonate has been studied and exploited for many applications. However, the interaction between processing-induced effects and the strain rate affects the mechanical behavior significantly. In this work, the effects of the processing-induced thermal history, generated by either injection molding or compression molding, were characterized. Polycarbonate samples manufactured with the two processes were experimentally compared using quasi-static and dynamic compression testing. The processing effects are further evaluated by combining a numerical calculation of the temperature history and a constitutive model to predict the yield strength of the glassy polymer. The constitutive modeling approach considers both the effect of the rate-dependent and stress-activated motion of the chain segments, and the strain-hardening effect due to molecular alignment. The results indicate that the thermal history has a significant effect at low strain rates, while its influence is negligible in the dynamic range. The modeling effort allows estimating the yield strength with different accuracy depending on the strain rate values.
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