Efficient and Precise Micro-Injection Molding of Micro-Structured Polymer Parts Using Micro-Machined Mold Core by WEDM.

In this paper, micro-structured polymer parts were efficiently and accurately fabricated by micro-injection molding using a micro-structured mold core machined by wire electrical discharge machining (WEDM). The objective was to realize low-cost mass production and manufacturing of micro-structured polymer products. The regular micro-structured mold core was manufactured by precise WEDM. The micro-structured polymer workpieces were rapidly fabricated by micro-injection molding and the effects of the micro-injection molding process parameters on replication rate and surface roughness of micro-structured polymers were systematically investigated and analyzed. It is shown that the micro-structured polymer can be rapidly and precisely fabricated by the proposed method. The experimental results show the minimum size machining error of the micro-structured mold core and the maximum replication rate of micro-formed polymer were 0.394% and 99.12%, respectively. Meanwhile, the optimal micro-injection molding parameters, namely, jet temperature, melt temperature, injection velocity, holding pressure and holding time were 195 °C, 210 °C, 40 mm/min, 7 Mpa and 5 s, respectively. The surface roughness Ra at the groove bottom and top of the micro-structured polymer workpieces achieved minimum values of 0.805 µm and 0.972 µm, respectively.

Efficient and Precise Grinding of Sapphire Glass Based on Dry Electrical Discharge Dressed Coarse Diamond Grinding Wheel.

In this paper, in view of low grinding efficiency and poor ground surface quality of sapphire glass, the coarse diamond grinding wheel dressed by dry impulse electrical discharge was proposed to perform efficient and precise grinding machining of sapphire glass. The dry electrical discharge dressing technology was employed to obtain high grain protrusion and sharp micro-grain cutting edges. The influences of grinding process parameters such as wheel speed, depth of cut and feed speed on the ground surface quality, grinding force and grinding force ratio on sapphire glass were investigated, and the relationship between grinding force and ground surface quality was also revealed. The experimental results show that the grain protrusion height on the surface of a coarse diamond grinding wheel dressed by dry electrical discharge can reach 168.5 µm. The minimum line roughness Ra and surface roughness Sa of ground sapphire glass surface were 0.194 µm and 0.736 µm, respectively. In order to achieve highly efficient ground quality of sapphire glass, the depth of cut was controlled within 7 µm, and the wheel speed and feed speed were 3000-5000 r/min and 10-20 mm/min, respectively. The influences of feed speed and wheel speed on grinding force ratio were more significant, but the influence of depth of cut was little.

Fabrication of Micro-Structured Polymer by Micro Injection Molding Based on Precise Micro-Ground Mold Core.

Precise micro-grinding machining was proposed to fabricate regular and controllable micro-grooved array structures on the surface of mold cores to realize the mass production and manufacturing of micro-structured polymer components by micro injection molding in this paper. First, the 3D topographies and section profiles of micro-ground mold cores and micro-formed polymers with different micro-structure parameters were presented. Then, the surface roughness of mold cores and polymers were compared. Next, the relationships between machining accuracy of mold core ground by micro-grinding and filling rates of micro-structured polymer formed by micro injection molding were investigated. Finally, the influences of micro injection molding parameters on the filling rate of micro-structures polymer were investigated. It is shown that the micro-structured polymer can be effectively and rapidly fabricated using the proposed method. The experimental results indicate the highest form accuracy of the micro-grooved mold core and the filling rate of micro-structured polymer can reach to 4.05 µm and 99.30%, respectively. It is found that the filling rate of the micro-structured polymer roughly increased with increasing machining accuracy of the mold core. The injection pressure had the greatest influence on the filling rate of the injection formed polymer, while the melt temperature had the least influence.