A micro powder injection molding apparatus for high aspect ratio metal micro-structure production
Fu, Gang; Tor, Shubeng; Loh, Ngiaphiang; Tay, Beeyen; Hardt, David E; Fu, Gang; Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA), N2-B2C-15, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798; School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798; Tor, Shubeng; Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA), N2-B2C-15, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798; School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798; Loh, Ngiaphiang; School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798; Tay, Beeyen; Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology, 71 Nanyang Drive, Singapore 638075; Hardt, David E; Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA), Room 8-407, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA; Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MA, USA
Журнал:
Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering
Дата:
2007-09-01
Аннотация:
A new variotherm molding apparatus is presented in this paper for the fabrication of high aspect ratio 316L stainless steel micro-structures using micro powder injection molding (μPIM) technology. The molding apparatus prototype includes an injection mold in which a silicon insert with an array of 24 × 24 (576) microcavities is mounted, a set of rapid tempering systems for the mold and a set of vacuum systems. The key advantage of this molding apparatus lies in the real-time monitoring and rapid adjustment of the mold cavity temperature during injection molding and part ejection, which makes molding and demolding of high aspect ratio green micro-structures possible. For example, incomplete filling occurs while injection molding micro-structures of 60 µm × height 191 µm with an aspect ratio of 3.2 using a conventional mold. In comparison, smaller micro-structures with higher aspect ratio are produced successfully in the case of the new molding apparatus, e.g. micro-structures of 40 µm × height 174 µm with an aspect ratio of 4.35 and 20 µm × height 160 µm with an aspect ratio of 8 were molded successfully.
984.3Кб