The project “Pressure-driven Injection Moulding for micro replication” is selected as one of the five projects, which will be presented on Plastic Engineering Day.

The project is made by Santiago Ezquerra Quiroga, M.Sc. Materials and Manufacturing Engineering at DTU.

Miniaturization is pushing the injection molding (IM) industry towards smaller and smaller parts, sometimes at a micro-scale level. Until now, there had been no attempts to establish procedures for the selection of process parameters for micro-IM parts directly on the production floor.

This MSc thesis project is highly operation focused. Two methodologies developed for the IM industry were tested and compared in terms of micro-replication, part mass and shrinkage, process stability and in-cavity pressure and temperature.

It was demonstrated that, by modulating the injection speed during the injection phase, it is possible to achieve a better replication of micro-features on the surface of IM parts without the need of extra equipment or computer simulations.

Higher process stability and better replication translate directly into less scrap, better use of machine time, less energy consumption and higher quality. The solution can be readily applied in any IM production floor.

Which types of plastics/ processes are used?

Conventional injection molding for micro-injection molding parts was used in the study. However, the solution can be applied to conventional injection molding parts. Cyclo olefin co-polymer (COC) was used for the study. Additionally, the solution can be applied to any family of thermoplastics.

University and academic frame:

Master Thesis | 32.5 ECTS | Master of Science in Materials and Manufacturing Engineering at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU).

Further information:

Santiago Ezquerra Quiroga: santezq@gmail.com