TY - JOUR
AU1 - Fu, Gang
AU2 - Tor, Shubeng
AU3 - Loh, Ngiaphiang
AU4 - Tay, Beeyen
AU5 - Hardt, David E
AB - 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 (PIM) 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.
TI - A micro powder injection molding apparatus for high aspect ratio metal micro-structure production
JF - Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering
DO - 10.1088/0960-1317/17/9/008
DA - 2007-09-01
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/iop-publishing/a-micro-powder-injection-molding-apparatus-for-high-aspect-ratio-metal-DrEFSShCKF
SP - 1803
VL - 17
IS - 9
DP - DeepDyve
ER -