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A cost-effective approach using recycled materials to fabricate micro-hot embossing dies for microfabrication

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Abstract

Green manufacturing is a good approach to reduction of the production cost in the research and development stage of a new product, especially for a rapid tooling for small volume production. The purpose of this work is to develop a rapid tooling using recycled Al-filled epoxy resins. The compressive strength of the samples fabricated by the mixture of different kinds of epoxy resins and different particle sizes of recycled Al-filled epoxy resin powders were investigated experimentally. It was found that the 174 AB epoxy resins seem to be a good candidate for mixing recycled Al-filled epoxy resin powders. The 1:0.5 is the optimal mixing weight ratio for mixing epoxy resin and recycled Al-filled epoxy resin powders. The compressive strength of the test specimens is 95% of that fabricated fully by commercial materials. For a precision hot embossing die with dimensions of 70 mm in length, 70 mm in width, and 15 mm in height, the total manufacturing cost savings about 26.6% and the last process manufacturing cost savings about 50.4% can be obtained using the method proposed in this work.

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Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan under contracts nos. MOST 106-2221-E-131-011, MOST 105-2221-E-131-012, MOST 104-2221-E-131-026, and MOST 103-2221-E-131-012.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ming Chi University of Technology, No. 84, Gungjuan Road, New Taipei City, 243, Taiwan

    Chil-Chyuan Kuo & Shin-Yun Lyu

Authors
  1. Chil-Chyuan Kuo
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  2. Shin-Yun Lyu
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Correspondence to Chil-Chyuan Kuo.

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Kuo, CC., Lyu, SY. A cost-effective approach using recycled materials to fabricate micro-hot embossing dies for microfabrication. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 94, 4365–4371 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-017-1161-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-017-1161-9

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