Experimental Study on the Filling of a Micro Injection Molding with Cylindrical Dot Patterns

Abstract

Abstract This study is to investigate the fabrication of a mold insert with negative cylindrical dot micro features using the LIGA-Like process and molding of the component. The effects of molding conditions on the filling of the polymer melt into the negative features were experimentally studied. A parametric study of the effect of the molding conditions on the filling of microstructure in micro molding was conducted. Increase of the mold temperature or injection rate is an effective method to ensure the complete filling of the microstructure. The application of packing pressure was shown to improve the filling in the microstructure also. With the low aspect ratio used in this study (about 0.2), the microdot array can be completely filled with the right selections of injection rate and mold temperature without vacuum.