• Proceedings of the Korean Powder Metallurgy Institute Conference
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• 2006.09a
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• pp.43-44
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• 2006

The production method of micro sacrificial plastic mold insert metal injection molding, namely ${\mu}-SPiMIM$ process has been proposed to solve specific problems involving the miniaturization of MIM. Two types of sacrificial plastic molds (SP-mold) with fine structures were used: 1) PMMA resist, 2) PMMA mold injected into Ni-electroform, which is a typical LIGA (${\underline{L}}ithographie-{\underline{G}}alvanoformung-{\underline{A}}bformung$) process. Stainless steel 316L feedstock was injection-molded into the SP-molds with multi-pillar structures. This study focused on the effects of metal particle size and processing conditions on the shrinkage, transcription and surface roughness of sintered parts.

• Design & Manufacturing
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.15-21
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• 2020

Smart systems in different application areas such as automotive, medical and consumer electronics require a novel manufacturing method of electronic, optical and mechanical functions into products. Traditional methods including mechanical assembly, bonding of plastic and electronic circuit cause the problems in large size of products and complicated manufacturing processes. In this study, thermoforming and film insert molding were applied to fabricate a dome shaped plastic part embedded with electronic circuits. The deformation of patterns printed on PET film was predicted by thermoforming simulation using T-SIM, and the results were compared with those by experiment. In order to decrease spring-back after thermoforming, the Taguchi method of design of experiment was used. Through ANOVA analysis, it was found that mold temperature was the most dominant parameter for spring-back. By using flow analysis, gate design was performed to decrease injection pressure. During film insert molding, the wash-out of ink printed on film occurred for Polycarbonate. When the resin was changed to PMMA, the wash-out disappeared due to low melt temperature.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.15 no.1 s.82
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• pp.34-41
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• 2006

Microlens arrays were fabricated by a modified LIGA process composed of the exposure of a PMMA (Polymethylmethacrylate) sheet to deep x-rays and subsequent thermal treatment. A successful modeling and analyses for microlens formation were presented according to the experimental procedure. A nickel mold insert was fabricated by the nickel electroforming process on the PMMA microlens arrays fabricated by the modified LIGA process. For the replication of microlens arrays having various diameters with different foci on the same substrate, both hot embossing and microinjection molding processes have been successfully utilized with the fabricated mold insert. Replicated microlenses showed very good surface roughness with the order of 1 nm. The focal lengths of the injection molded microlenses were successfully estimated theoretically and also measured experimentally.

• Design & Manufacturing
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.29-34
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• 2017

Increased demand for parts with micro-pattern structure made of metals, ceramics, and composites in various fields such as medical ultrasonic sensors, CT collimators, and ultra-small actuator parts. Micro powder injection molding (PIM) is a technology for manufacturing micro size, high volume, complex, precision, net-shape components from either metal or ceramic powder. In the present study, a standard mold with a variable insert core capable of producing various micro patterns was investigated. An injection molding test was performed on a standard mold using a line type micro-pattern core having an aspect ratio of 2, a slenderness ratio of 70, a pattern size of $200{\mu}m$, and a pattern spacing of $150{\mu}m$. During the filling process, the deformation of the mold with large aspect ratio and slenderness ratio was analyzed by the experiment and the numerical simulation according to the position of the gate. We proposed a mold structure that minimizes mold deformation by gate modification and enables uniform pattern filling behavior.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.426-432
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• 2021

Injection molding is used in many industrial fields such as home appliances, vehicle parts, and electronic device parts because various resins can be molded, leading to mass production of complex shapes. Generally, the empirical prediction method is used to set the initial processing conditions of injection molding. However, this approach requires a lot of cost and its presented solution is not accurate. In this paper, injection molding was simulated through the Moldflow^TM in order to manufacture the spacer for gas insulated switch. Through the simulation, the flow of the resin with respect to the diameter of the inlet was analyzed. It was found that the process was possible at a higher resin temperature as the diameter of the inlet increased. In addition, through thermal analysis during injection of the resin, it was confirmed that a stagnation phenomenon occurred at the insert portion during injection molding, and the temperature of the resin was higher than that of the mold. As in this paper, if the spacer is manufactured by optimizing the injection hole and the temperature of the injection process based on simulation, it is expected that the spacer can be manufactured with high productivity.

• Design & Manufacturing
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.71-77
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• 2020

Various manufacturing technologies, including over-molding and insert-injection molding, are used to produce hybrid plastics and metals. However, there are disadvantages to these technologies, as they require several steps in manufacturing and are limited to what can be reasonably achieved within the complexities of part geometry. This study aims to determine a practical approach for producing metal/plastic hybrid components by combining plastic injection molding and metal die casting to create a new hybrid metal/plastic molding process. The integrated metal/plastic hybrid injection molding process developed in this study uses the proven method of multi-component technology as a basis to combine plastic injection molding with metal die casting into one integrated process. In this study, the electrical conductivity and ampacity were verified to qualify the new process for the production of parts used in electronic devices. The electrical conductivity was measured, contacting both sides of the test sample with constant pressure, and the resistivity was measured using a micro ohmmeter. Also, the specific conductivity was subsequently calculated from the resistivity and contact surface of the conductor path. The ampacity defines the maximum amount of current a conductive path can carry before sustaining immediate or progressive deterioration. The manufactured hybrid multi-components were loaded with increasing currents, while the temperature was recorded with an infrared camera. To compare the measured infrared images, an electro-thermal simulation was conducted using commercial CAE software to predict the maximum temperature of the power loaded parts. Overall, during the injection molding process, it was demonstrated that multifunctional parts can be produced for electric and electronic applications.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.250-256
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• 2011

Vacuum-assisted thermoforming is one of the critical steps for the successful application of film insert molding(FIM) to parts of complex shapes. If the thickness distribution of the formed film is non-uniform, cracking, deformation, warping, and wrinkling can easily occur at the injection molding stage. In this study, the effects of processing parameters, which include the film heating time, plug depth, plug speed and vacuum delay time, on film thickness distribution were investigated. It was found that the film thickness at the part sidewall decreases with increasing the film heating time and plug depth, but the thickness at the bottom was found to exhibit the opposite behavior. The film thickness of the sidewall was observed to increase at higher plug speed and vacuum delay time of 0 ~ 0.3sec.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.122-127
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• 2009

The injection mold with multi-cavity is essential for mass production of plastic products. Multi-cavity molds are designed to geometrically balanced runner system to uniformly fill to each cavity. However, despite geometrical balanced runner system, filling imbalances between cavity to cavity have always been observed in injection molding. To solve these problems, many studies such as Melt Flipper, RC Pin, and others have been presented. The results of these studies have been an effect on filling balances in multi-cavity molds. But, those have had a limitation that additional insert parts must have existed in the mold. In this study, a new runner system is suggested for filling balance between cavity to cavity using "Melt-Buffer" with simple change of runner shape. A series of simulation to confirm feasibility of Melt-Buffer's effects was conducted using injection molding CAE program. Also, a series of injection molding experiment was conducted using plastic materials such as ABS and PP. As results of this study, feasibilities of filling balances by Melt-Buffer were confirmed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.111-114
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• 2005

Experimental and numerical studies were carried out in order to investigate the processability and the transcriptability of the injection molding of micro structures. For this purpose, we designed a mold insert having micro rib patterns on a relatively thick base part. Mold insert has a base of 2mm thickness, and has nine micro ribs on that base plate. Width and height of the rib are $300{\mu}m\;and\;1200{\mu}m$, respectively. We found a phenomenon similar to 'race tracking', due to 'hesitation' in the micro ribs. As the melt flows, it starts to cool down and melt front located in the ribs near the gate cannot penetrate further because the flow resistance is large in that almost frozen portion. When the base is totally filled, the melt front away from the gate is not frozen yet. Therefore, it flows back to the gate direction through the ribs. Consequently, transcriptability of the rib far from the gate is better. We also verified this phenomenon via numerical simulation. We further investigated the effects of processing conditions, such as flow rate, packing time, packing pressure, wall temperature and melt temperature, on the transcriptability. The most dominant factor that affects the flow pattern and the transcriptability of the micro rib is flow rate. High flow rate and high melt temperature enhance the transcriptability of micro rib structure. High packing time and high packing pressure result in insignificant dimensional variations of the rib. Numerical simulation also confirms that low flow rate causes a short shot of micro ribs and high wall temperature helps the filling of the micro ribs.

• Composites Research
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.117-125
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• 2012

Warpage of the film insert molded (FIM) part is caused by an asymmetric residual stress distribution. Asymmetric residual stress and temperature distribution is generated by the retarded heat transfer in the perpendicular direction to the attached film surface. Since warpage was not prevented by controlling injection molding conditions, glass fiber (GF) filled composites were employed as substrates for film insert molding to minimize the warpage. Distribution of short GFs was evaluated by using micro-CT equipment. Proper models for micro mechanics, anisotropic thermal expansion coefficients, and closure approximation should be selected in order to calculate fiber orientation tensor and warpage of the FIM part with the composite substrate. After six kinds of micro mechanics models, three models of the thermal expansion coefficient and five models of the closure approximation had been considered, the Mori-Tanaka model, the Rosen and Hashin model, and the third orthotropic closure approximation were selected in this study. The numerically predicted results on fiber orientation tensor and warpage were in good agreement with experimental results and effects of GF reinforcement on warpage of the FIM composite specimen were identified by the numerical results.