Replicative manufacturing of metal moulds for low surface roughness polymer replication

Sebastian Kluck, Leonhard Hambitzer, Manuel Luitz, Markus Mader, Mario Sanjaya, Andreas Balster, Marcel Milich, Christian Greiner, Frederik Kotz-Helmer () and Bastian E. Rapp
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Sebastian Kluck: Department of Microsystems Engineering (IMTEK) University of Freiburg, Georges-Köhler-Allee 103
Leonhard Hambitzer: Department of Microsystems Engineering (IMTEK) University of Freiburg, Georges-Köhler-Allee 103
Manuel Luitz: Department of Microsystems Engineering (IMTEK) University of Freiburg, Georges-Köhler-Allee 103
Markus Mader: Department of Microsystems Engineering (IMTEK) University of Freiburg, Georges-Köhler-Allee 103
Mario Sanjaya: Glassomer GmbH, Georges-Köhler-Allee 103
Andreas Balster: Gemeinnützige KIMW Forschungs-GmbH Lutherstraße 7
Marcel Milich: Institute for Applied Materials (IAM) Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) Kaiserstraße 12
Christian Greiner: Institute for Applied Materials (IAM) Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) Kaiserstraße 12
Frederik Kotz-Helmer: Department of Microsystems Engineering (IMTEK) University of Freiburg, Georges-Köhler-Allee 103
Bastian E. Rapp: Department of Microsystems Engineering (IMTEK) University of Freiburg, Georges-Köhler-Allee 103

Nature Communications, 2022, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract 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 Rq 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.

Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-32767-2

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