Micro Injection Molding of Thin Cavities Using Stereolithography for Mold Fabrication
At the present time, there is a growing interest in additive manufacturing (AM) technologies and their integration into current process chains. In particular, the implementation of AM for tool production in micro injection molding (µ-IM), a well-established process, could introduce many advantages....
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-06-01
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| Series: | Polymers |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4360/13/11/1848 |
| _version_ | 1797531564241846272 |
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| author | Rossella Surace Vito Basile Vincenzo Bellantone Francesco Modica Irene Fassi |
| author_facet | Rossella Surace Vito Basile Vincenzo Bellantone Francesco Modica Irene Fassi |
| author_sort | Rossella Surace |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | At the present time, there is a growing interest in additive manufacturing (AM) technologies and their integration into current process chains. In particular, the implementation of AM for tool production in micro injection molding (µ-IM), a well-established process, could introduce many advantages. First of all, AM could avoid the need for the time-consuming and expensive fabrication of molds for small series of customized products. In this work, the feasibility, quality, and reliability of an AM/µ-IM process chain were evaluated by designing and fabricating mold inserts for µ-IM by stereolithography (SLA) technology; the mold inserts were characterized and tested experimentally. The selected geometry is composed of four thin cavities: This particular feature represents an actual challenge for both the SLA and µ-IM perspective due to the large surface-to-volume ratio of the cavity. Two different materials were used for the mold fabrication, showing sharply different performance in terms of endurance limit and cavity degradation. The obtained results confirm that the µ-IM process, exploiting an SLA fabricated mold insert, is feasible but requires great accuracy in material choice, mold design, fabrication, and assembly. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T10:46:32Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-117226fbe14b42719bac0d74f5ba1027 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2073-4360 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T10:46:32Z |
| publishDate | 2021-06-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Polymers |
| spelling | doaj.art-117226fbe14b42719bac0d74f5ba10272023-11-21T22:33:44ZengMDPI AGPolymers2073-43602021-06-011311184810.3390/polym13111848Micro Injection Molding of Thin Cavities Using Stereolithography for Mold FabricationRossella Surace0Vito Basile1Vincenzo Bellantone2Francesco Modica3Irene Fassi4Institute of Intelligent Industrial Technologies and Systems for Advanced Manufacturing, National Research Council (STIIMA-CNR), 70124 Bari, ItalyInstitute of Intelligent Industrial Technologies and Systems for Advanced Manufacturing, National Research Council (STIIMA-CNR), 70124 Bari, ItalyInstitute of Intelligent Industrial Technologies and Systems for Advanced Manufacturing, National Research Council (STIIMA-CNR), 70124 Bari, ItalyInstitute of Intelligent Industrial Technologies and Systems for Advanced Manufacturing, National Research Council (STIIMA-CNR), 70124 Bari, ItalyInstitute of Intelligent Industrial Technologies and Systems for Advanced Manufacturing, National Research Council (STIIMA-CNR), 20133 Milano, ItalyAt the present time, there is a growing interest in additive manufacturing (AM) technologies and their integration into current process chains. In particular, the implementation of AM for tool production in micro injection molding (µ-IM), a well-established process, could introduce many advantages. First of all, AM could avoid the need for the time-consuming and expensive fabrication of molds for small series of customized products. In this work, the feasibility, quality, and reliability of an AM/µ-IM process chain were evaluated by designing and fabricating mold inserts for µ-IM by stereolithography (SLA) technology; the mold inserts were characterized and tested experimentally. The selected geometry is composed of four thin cavities: This particular feature represents an actual challenge for both the SLA and µ-IM perspective due to the large surface-to-volume ratio of the cavity. Two different materials were used for the mold fabrication, showing sharply different performance in terms of endurance limit and cavity degradation. The obtained results confirm that the µ-IM process, exploiting an SLA fabricated mold insert, is feasible but requires great accuracy in material choice, mold design, fabrication, and assembly.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4360/13/11/1848micro injection moldingmoldthin cavityadditive manufacturingstereolithography |
| spellingShingle | Rossella Surace Vito Basile Vincenzo Bellantone Francesco Modica Irene Fassi Micro Injection Molding of Thin Cavities Using Stereolithography for Mold Fabrication Polymers micro injection molding mold thin cavity additive manufacturing stereolithography |
| title | Micro Injection Molding of Thin Cavities Using Stereolithography for Mold Fabrication |
| title_full | Micro Injection Molding of Thin Cavities Using Stereolithography for Mold Fabrication |
| title_fullStr | Micro Injection Molding of Thin Cavities Using Stereolithography for Mold Fabrication |
| title_full_unstemmed | Micro Injection Molding of Thin Cavities Using Stereolithography for Mold Fabrication |
| title_short | Micro Injection Molding of Thin Cavities Using Stereolithography for Mold Fabrication |
| title_sort | micro injection molding of thin cavities using stereolithography for mold fabrication |
| topic | micro injection molding mold thin cavity additive manufacturing stereolithography |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4360/13/11/1848 |
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