Process Transfer Function Development for Optical Media Manufacturing

The injection moulding of digital video disk substrates requires the selection of over forty process parameters to ensure the satisfaction of over twenty quality attributes. The work described characterised the behaviour of this complex moulding process through a formal set of design of experiments (DOE) consisting of:

1. Main effects DOE.

2. Multiple decoupled DOE.

3. Optimisation DOE.

The described characterisation methodology identified critical process parameters and modelled linear, interaction, and non-linear effects of multiple quality attributes with regression coefficients varying from 65% to 98%. The developed empirical models are being used to facilitate advanced material development and production optimisation of digital video disks, but the described characterisation methodology can also be applied to other complex manufacturing processes.