Design of a micro injection moulding machine for thermosetting moulding materials

摘要

Micro products made of thermosetting polymers enable innovative applications since thermoplastics do not always yield the desired properties: thermosetting moulding grades offer advantages in thermal durability and chemical resistance in comparison to thermoplastic resins. Processing smallest quantities of polymeric material for applications in micro system technology require high process accuracies, e.g. in the volume of plasticised material and injection dynamics. Alternative machine concepts especially designed for micro injection moulding meet these requirements by means of special constructive setups mostly by using a plunger for injection. An appropriate micro injection moulding machine prototype is available at IKV Aachen. A new design of the plasticising and injection unit specially designed for thermosetting moulding materials is presented in this paper.