SPECIAL FOCUS Micro Moulding
OULDING The word ‘micro’ has seeped deep into the manufacturing industry and with the rising demand for small and sleek products, machining such intricacies is an expensive challenge. Micro moulding, however, has rose as a cost-effective alternative for the industry. Debarati Basu finds out the nuances that this technology offers to the industry.
E
ven as the manufacturing industry itself has taken a leap towards higher level of precision, most manufacturers are trying to cut down on the machining costs. To top it up, miniaturisation is a trend which is catching up across all the industrial verticles throughout the world. With the rise in micro components, machining parts at the sub micron level has always posed to be a great challenge. As an alternative, technological advancement has brought in micro moulding as a cost effective option to micro machining which can deftly produce miniature parts supplying similar precision and reducing the overall cost of production and manufacturing at the same time. However, given the adversities that the Indian industry faces, will this technology be able to seep in as a costeffective option for the manufacturers?
Micro-level Moulding As the domain of manufacturing processes has expanded over the years, the next criterion of immense importance is on bringing down the cost of manufacturing. Micro machining has traditionally been the benchmark of precision machining 76
MODERN MACHINE TOOLS - April 2012
especially in industries which demand for high intricacies and complex designing parameters. However, as the soaring volumes for such components are in demand, the industry has deftly accommodated new technology justifying mass production. Micro moulding, today can offer a range of cost-effective alternatives for components that are miniature, complex and require high-precision tolerances. In precision micro moulding of a component, manufacturers have to consider the mould tool design, the micro moulding equipment used and ensuring the quality of the final product. Any component which is smaller than one micron and has high-precision tolerances are components which can be micro moulded effectively. Additionally, this technology can play an important role for components made of metal, ceramic, glass or plastic with high degree of design complexity. However, the ability to produce acceptable metering accuracy and homogeneity of very small quantities of plastic melt is in itself a key challenge in the micro moulding process.
Why Micro Mould? Along
with
bringing
down
the
manufacturing costs; this process also saves time in production processes as compared to that spent on machining the parts. This has been found highly effective especially in the segments which demands parts in high volumes. The advancement in this technology has also guaranteed precision of parts which has automatically brought down the need for surface finishing. As the trend for smaller components is rising, it might become more difficult to machine complex geometries. Hence, micro moulding comes in as a viable option as this technology gives more freedom to designers to include intricate features in the products thereby enabling easy manufacturing of complex designs easily.
Applying Micro Moulding The rising complexities in the field of medical equipments have generated opportunities for micro moulding. Here are some areas of medical equipments manufacturing made of plastics where micro moulding can play a bigger role along with other manufacturing segments where it has already make a mark: Some of the medical devices require