Effect of cavity surface roughness and wettability on the filling flow in micro injection molding

The surface to volume ratio in micro injection molding is quite large and this makes interfacial phenomena particularly crucial for the effectiveness of the process. This criticality is more evident for thin parts molding, where the influence of roughness on the thermal boundary conditions is not negligible. In this case, the contact between polymer and mold significantly affects the heat transfer at the interface and consequently it strongly influences the polymer melt flow behavior. In this paper, the effects of the polymer-mold interface on polymer flow were experimentally investigated. In particular, the filling of a representative micro part with a thickness of 100 μm was studied in relation to surface roughness and mold wettability. The results showed that the state of the polymer-mold interface plays a fundamental role in the filling of thin-wall micro injection molding. In particular, the flow length increases with both the mold roughness and the contact angle between the molten polymers and the cavity surface.