Contacting of inserts with the integrated metal/plastic injection moulding

Abstract

The integrated metal/plastic injection moulding enables the production of plastics components with integrated conductor tracks and contacted inserts using an injection moulding machine. For this purpose, first a plastics carrier, which contains a groove for the later conductor track, is injection moulded and following electrical inserts are placed along the groove. The conductor track is then die‐casted from metallic solder. By using thermally conductive plastics, heat generated along the conductive paths and at the electrical inserts can be dissipated. A mechanical, electrical and optical characterisation of the material composite consisting of plastics carrier, metallic conductor track and electrical insert is carried out. In addition, process and material parameters that have an influence on the contacting of electrical inserts in connection with thermally conductive plastics in the integrated metal/plastic injection moulding are analysed. The results show that through the use of thermally conductive plastics, significant advantages in terms of heat dissipation and contact quality between the insert and the conductor track can be achieved.