• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.06c
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• pp.47-52
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• 2001

Micro-injection molding and microfluidic devices with the help of MEMS technologies including the LIGA process are expected to play important roles in. micro-system industries, in particular the bioapplication industry, in the near future. Understanding fluid flows in micro-channels is important since micro-channels are typical geometry in various microfluidic devices and mold inserts for micro-injection molding. In the present study, both experimental and numerical studies have been carried out to understand the detailed flow phenomena in micro-channel filling process. Three sets of micro-channels of different thickness were fabricated and a flow visualization system was also developed to observe the filling flow into the micro-channels. Experimental flow observations were extensively made to find the effects of channel width and thickness, and effects of surface tension and volume flow rate and so on. And a numerical analysis system has been developed to simulate the filling flow into micro-channels with the surface tension effect taken into account. Discussed are the flow visualization experimental observations along with the predictability of the numerical analysis system.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.11-16
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• 2011

Recently, according to the rapid development of display, many display applications, such as, cellular phone, navigation, monitor and LCD TV have been changed from CRT type to LCD type. BLU(Back Light Unit) is one of main parts in LCD unit and generally, it consists of a light source, a reflective sheet, a LGP(Light Guide Plate), a diffuser sheet, and two prism sheets. The most important component of BLU is a light guide plate, which diffuses the input light to the TFT-LCD module uniformly. The LGP is usually made by injection molding process, and it has numerous optical micro patterns on the surface. In the present study the micro-patterned stamper which has cylindrical shape was fabricated by using the UV-LiGA process. And the replication characteristics have been compared among three different kinds of injection molding process; general injection molding, injection/compression molding and RHCM(Rapid Heating and Cooling Molding). Average replication ratios of CIM and ICM were 19.1% and 64.6%, respectively. On the other hand, the average replication ratio of RHCM process showed the higher value of 98.4% among these. It show that maintaining the mold surface above $T_g$ could increase the replication ratio of micro patterns substantially.

• Design & Manufacturing
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.8-14
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• 2023

In this study, basic research was conducted on manufacturing technology of thick-walled light guide a component that controls the light source of automobile lamps. As a preliminary study for manufacturing the final injection molded parts, a model for analyzing the influence of micro patterns on light guides is presented. The optical characteristics of the light guide were analyzed according to the change of the curvature radius of the micro-optical pattern, and the injection molding characteristics of the light guide according to the change of injection molding conditions were analytically evaluated. It was confirmed that the luminance uniformity improves as the R value decreases for changes in the micro-pattern R value, but it was confirmed that there are technical limitations in actual injection mold core processing and high-replication injection molding. Injection molding analysis showed that cooling channel design is very important compared to general injection molding due to thick-wall characteristics and thickness variation. It was also confirmed that the cooling channel has a great influence on the cycle time and birefringence result due to residual stress. As a result of analyzing the influence of filling time, holding condition, and cooling on shrinkage, it was found that the cooling water temperature has a significant effect on the shrinkage of ultra-fine light guide parts, and the holding condition also has a significant effect.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.216-219
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• 2005

In recent, LCD becomes one of the main display devices and expected to have quite good market share during the next couple of years. The demand for low cost and high performance, however, is becoming severe as the competition among other display devices like PDP, OLED increases. To satisfy this demand from market, we need to optimize the parts or modules of the LCD, reduce the number of the assemble and enhance the process for the high brightness and uniformity of the LCD. The LCD consists mainly of LCD panel and Backlight unit(BLU). BLU, which takes big portion of the cost for LCD, consists of light source, light guide panel and many kinds of functional film. Recently light guide panel or film for BLU has micro patterns on its surface and consequently to reduce the number of parts and enhace the brightness and its uniformity. In this study, some methodologies for the fabrication of the master/stamper and molding the light quide panel are introduced for 50um pitch of prizm patterned substrate. Mechanical machining process is adapted and optimized to fabricate micro patterned stamper using the micro cutting tool. Injection molding technology is also developed to obtain uniformly replicated micro patterned products.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.26 no.10
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• pp.1982-1988
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• 2002

Micro-injection molding and microfluidic devices with the help of MEMS technologies including the LIGA process are expected to play important roles in micro-system industries, in particular the bio-application industry, in the near future. Understanding fluid flows in micro-channels is important since micro-channels are typical geometry in various microfluidic devices and mold inserts for micro-injection molding. In the present study, Part 1, an experimental investigation has been carried out to understand the detailed flow phenomena in micro-channel filling process. Three sets of micro-channels of different thickness (40um,30um and 2011m) were fabricated using SU-8 on silicon wafer substrate. And a flow visualization system was developed to observe the filling flow into the micro-channels. Experimental flow observations are extensively made to find the effects of pressure, inertia force, viscous force and surface tension. A dimensional analysis for experimental results was carried out and several relationships A dimensionless parameters are obtained.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.126-130
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• 2012

Accurate optical texturing of light guide plate over the entire surface area is an important technical issue in LCD TV industry. Injection molding process has the potential to produce large light guide plates having highly efficient optical textures such as micro-prism array. This study is focused on the effect of the degree of replication of the micro texture of the 40" injection molded light guide plates on the overall optical performance of the display panel. Measured replication ratios of the micro-textures formed with three different types of injection molding process were considered in the modeling of prismatic micro segment array. Optical simulation was conducted and results were discussed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Powder Metallurgy Institute Conference
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• 2006.09a
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• pp.36-37
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• 2006

This study aims to investigate the usage of nano-scale particles in a micro metal injection molding ($\mu$-MIM) process. Nanoscale particle is effective to improve transcription and surface roughness in small structure. Moreover, the effects of hybrid micro/nano particles, Cu/Cu and SUS/Cu were investigated. Small dumbbell specimens were produced using various feedstocks prepared by changing binder content and fraction of nano-scale Cu particle (0.3 and $0.13{\mu}m$ in particle size). The effects of adding the fraction of nano-scale Cu powder on the melt viscosity of the feedstock, microstructure, density and tensile strength of sintered parts were discussed.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.06c
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• pp.246-250
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• 2001

In resin transfer molding (RTM), resin is forced to flow through the fiber perform of inhomogeneous permeability. This inhomogeneity is responsible for the mismatch of resin velocity within and between the fiber tows. The capillary pressure of the fiber tows exacerbates the spatial variation of the resin velocity. The resulting microscopic perturbations of resin velocity at the flow front allow numerous air voids to form. In this study, a mathematical model was developed to predict the formation and migration of micro-voids during resin transfer molding. A transport equation was employed to account for the migration of voids between fiber tows. Incorporating the proposed model into a resin flow simulator, the volumetric content of micro-voids in the preform could be obtained during the simulation of resin impregnation.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.444-447
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• 2005

In recent industry, according to pursuit the miniaturization and high-precision of machine part with development of new technology as If, BT the development of mold manufacturing technology for mass production is accompanied. In this study, after executing the injection molding process of micro structure on the plate which the aspect ratio is 10, the characteristic of each molding condition is investigated by observing the filling height.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2010.11a
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• pp.507-508
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• 2010