Industrial Polymer Microfabrication and Customized Manufacturing Combining Additive Manufacturing and Injection Molding

结合增材制造和注塑成型的工业聚合物微加工和定制制造

• 批准号: RGPIN-2015-05785
• 负责人: Sameoto, Daniel
• 金额: $ 1.6万
• 依托单位: University of Alberta
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2019-01-01 至 2020-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=678732
• 关键词: Industrial; Polymer; Microfabrication; Customized; Manufacturing

This program proposes the merging of two key polymer manufacturing processes currently of tremendous industrial and academic interest: additive manufacturing (commonly referred to as 3D printing) and injection molding. Polymer based micro-electro-mechanical-systems (MEMS) uses traditional microfabrication technologies such as lithography, etching and plasma based processes. These polymer MEMS produce products such as disposable sensors, microfluidics, and superhydrophobic surfaces which are in general high value compared to most plastic products, but very inexpensive compared to silicon or glass based microfabricated products. While the quality can be extremely high, the cost structures of these traditional micromanufacturing techniques makes it more challenging to develop the low-cost and disposable devices that are the biggest advantage of polymer based microfabrication. However, newer advances in the field of 3D printing offers the possibility of producing highly complex micro and nanostructures dimensionally structured to provide novel properties compared to bulk polymer materials. These new functions include self-cleaning surfaces, anti-wetting materials and complex optical systems beyond what traditional lithography can achieve. 3D printing is tremendously exciting because it lowers the barriers to implement new design ideas or concepts without huge infrastructure investments to make the parts. However it is best for single part or low volume fabrication because the time to produce a structure is constant independent of production volume, rather than benefiting from economies of scale. On the other side of polymer microfabrication, injection molding is by far the most commercially important manufacturing technique and the lowest cost when working with high volume production (tens of thousands to millions of parts) and is the main driver behind the ubiquity of plastic products in our daily lives. It is economically unfeasible to apply injection molding to small volume runs due to the high costs of making the initial mold for the parts (potentially 10's to 100's of thousands of dollars for the mold). This research program will combine the low cost prototyping and tremendous design flexibility of additive manufacturing, and apply these 3D printed parts as direct or indirect molds for subsequent micro-injection molding. The primary aim is to investigate how to merge the benefits of these manufacturing technologies and develop new manufacturing techniques for microstructured polymer surfaces.  A secondary focus is the application of these microstructured surfaces to applications such as gecko-inspired adhesives and self-cleaning surfaces. In focusing on this research, it is also hoped that the rapid replication of a 3D printed part could be achieved with minimal extra costs, or mass customization of new products and materials can be achieved.*** **

该计划提出，目前具有极大的工业和学术兴趣的两个关键聚合物制造过程的合并：成瘾性制造（通常称为3D打印）和注塑成型。基于聚合物的微电力机械系统（MEMS）使用传统的微型制造技术，例如石版画，基于等离子体的过程。这些聚合物MEMS产生的产品，例如一次性传感器，微流体和超疏水表面，它们通常与大多数塑料产品相比具有很高的价值，但是与硅或基于玻璃的微型生产产品相比，它们非常便宜。虽然质量可能非常高，但是这些传统微制造技术的成本结构使开发低成本和一次性设备的挑战更加挑战，这是基于聚合物微加工的最大优势。然而，3D打印领域的新进展提供了与散装聚合物材料相比，尺寸结构化的高度复杂的微型和纳米结构的可能性。这些新功能包括自我清洁的表面，防润滑材料和复杂的光学系统，超出了传统岩石摄影能力。 3D打印非常令人兴奋，因为它降低了实施新的设计思想或概念的障碍，而无需大量的基础设施投资来制作零件。但是，最适合单零件或低容量的制造，因为产生结构的时间始终是独立于生产量的，而不是规模经济的好处。在聚合物微加工的另一侧，注射成型是迄今为止最重要的制造技术，是使用大量生产（数千万到数百万个零件）时最低的成本，并且是我们日常生活中塑料产品无处不在的主要驱动力。由于制作零件的初始模具的高成本（可能是模具的最初霉菌，因此在经济上不可行。该研究计划将结合添加剂制造的低成本原型制作和巨大的设计灵活性，并将这些3D打印零件作为直接或间接模具应用于随后的微注射成型。主要目的是研究如何合并这些制造技术的好处，并为微结构聚合物表面开发新的制造技术。次要重点是将这些微结构表面应用于诸如壁虎启发的粘合剂和自我清洁表面等应用。在关注这项研究的过程中，还希望可以通过最小的额外成本来快速复制3D打印部分，或者可以实现新产品和材料的大规模定制。********************************************