Kluck Sebastian, Hambitzer Leonhard, Luitz Manuel, Mader Markus, Sanjaya Mario, Balster Andreas, Milich Marcel, Greiner Christian, Kotz-Helmer Frederik, Rapp Bastian E
NeptunLab, Laboratory of Process Technology, Department of Microsystems Engineering (IMTEK) University of Freiburg, Georges-Köhler-Allee 103, Freiburg, 79110, Germany.
Glassomer GmbH, Georges-Köhler-Allee 103, Freiburg, 79110, Germany.
Nat Commun. 2022 Aug 27;13(1):5048. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-32767-2.
Tool based manufacturing processes like injection moulding allow fast and high-quality mass-market production, but for optical polymer components the production of the necessary tools is time-consuming and expensive. In this paper a process to fabricate metal-inserts for tool based manufacturing with smooth surfaces via a casting and replication process from fused silica templates is presented. Bronze, brass and cobalt-chromium could be successfully replicated from shaped fused silica replications achieving a surface roughnesses of R 8 nm and microstructures in the range of 5 µm. Injection moulding was successfully performed, using a commercially available injection moulding system, with thousands of replicas generated from the same tool. In addition, three-dimensional bodies in metal could be realised with 3D-Printing of fused silica casting moulds. This work thus represents an approach to high-quality moulding tools via a scalable facile and cost-effective route surpassing the currently employed cost-, labour- and equipment-intensive machining techniques.
像注塑成型这样基于工具的制造工艺能够实现快速且高质量的大规模市场生产，但对于光学聚合物部件而言，制造所需工具既耗时又昂贵。本文介绍了一种通过从熔融石英模板进行铸造和复制工艺来制造具有光滑表面的用于基于工具制造的金属嵌件的方法。青铜、黄铜和钴铬合金能够成功地从成型的熔融石英复制品中复制出来，实现了8纳米的表面粗糙度以及5微米范围内的微观结构。使用市售注塑成型系统成功进行了注塑成型，同一工具制造出了数千个复制品。此外，通过熔融石英铸模的3D打印可以实现金属三维物体的制造。因此，这项工作代表了一种通过可扩展的简便且经济高效的途径来制造高质量成型工具的方法，超越了目前所采用的成本高、劳动强度大且设备密集的加工技术。
