Attività

What is injection molding?

Precision injection molding of high performance components requires primary error sources

affected the molded component to be identified and isolated such that these errors can be reduced if needed. To systematically isolate and quantify the

contribution of misalignment, thermal variation and component warpage to the accumulated error observed on the component, a methodology is presented and

tested around an existing mold which produced parts with high dimensional variability. The mold featured two concentric guide pillars on opposite sides of

the parting plane and rectangular centering block elements at three locations. Mold displacements at the parting plane were measured through the

incorporation of three eddy-current linear displacement sensors. Thermal error sensitivity was investigated using FEM simulations such that the induced

variability from thermal expansion and filling phase was identified and quantified. Finally, molded component warpage was isolated and quantified, again by

the means of FEM simulation. The results were confirmed by using the mold on two injection molding machines to produce an array of parts whose key dimensions

were measured.

Micro/nanostructured components play an important role in micro-optics and optical engineering, tribology and surface engineering, and biological and

biomedical engineering, among other fields. Precision glass molding technology is the most efficient method of manufacturing micro/nanostructured glass

components, the premise of which is meld manufacturing with complementary micro/nanostructures. Numerous mold manufacturing methods have been developed to

fabricate extremely small and high-quality micro/nanostructures to satisfy the demands of functional micro/nanostructured glass components for various

applications. Moreover, the service performance of the mold should also be carefully considered. This paper reviews a variety of technologies for

manufacturing micro/nanostructured molds.