Hot embossing is an effective technology for reproducing micro-scale features in polymeric materials, but large-scale adoption of this method is hindered by high capital costs and low cycle times relative to other technologies, and a general lack of manufacturing equipment. This work details a hot embossing machine design strategy motivated by maximum production speed and quality with minimal capital cost. The approach is to "right-size" the machine for specific product needs while making the design flexible and scalable. Toward this end, a minimal number of components were used, commercially available off-the-shelf components were chosen where possible, system layout was designed to be modular, and system size was scaled for the intended products (in this case microfluidic devices). Innovative design aspects include the use of new ceramic substrate heaters for electrical heating, use of a moveable heat sink to minimize heat load during the heating cycle, and the careful design of the thermal elements to minimize the heating and cooling cycle times. The capital cost and the cost per part produced with this machine are estimated to be an order of magnitude less than currently available hot embossing manufacturing options. The hot embossing machine has been tested extensively to characterize the process variability. The minimum cycle time is two minutes, and microstructures are replicated within a maximum of a 25mm by 75mm area with very low relative variance in dimensions.
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机译：热压印是一种用于在聚合物材料中再现微尺度特征的有效技术，但是相对于其他技术而言，这种方法的大规模采用由于较高的投资成本和较低的周期时间以及普遍缺乏制造设备而受到阻碍。这项工作详细介绍了一种热压花机的设计策略，该策略以最大的生产速度和最高的质量以及最低的资本成本为动力。该方法是针对特定产品需求“调整尺寸”机器，同时使设计灵活且可扩展。为此，使用了最少的组件，在可能的情况下选择了市场上可买到的现成组件，将系统布局设计为模块化，并针对预期产品（在这种情况下为微流体设备）调整了系统尺寸。创新的设计方面包括使用新的陶瓷基板加热器进行电加热，使用可移动的散热器以最大程度地减少加热周期中的热负荷，以及精心设计的热敏元件以最大程度地缩短加热和冷却周期。估计该机器的投资成本和每件零件的成本要比当前可用的热压花制造方案低一个数量级。热压花机已经过广泛测试，以表征工艺的可变性。最小循环时间为两分钟，并且在最大25mm x 75mm区域内复制微结构，并且尺寸的相对变化非常小。
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