Development of a Large-Area Hot Embossing Mold with Micro-Sized Structures

Abstract

Microtechnology is a core technology in the 21st century. Microfabrication plays an important role in the precision machinery industry. Two major troublesome issues in the mold industry are the time and expense needed for producing a mold for the pilot run in the new product development phase. The aim of this study was to propose a cost-efficient method for fabricating a large-area hot embossing mold with micro-sized structures. The advantages of this method include short manufacturing leading times, simple manufacturing processes, low manufacturing cost, and short processing time. A large-area hot embossing mold with areas of 250 mm × 350 mm was fabricated. Cost savings about 61.3 % can be reached. The manufacturing processes developed in this work possess a significant industrial application value because a new 3C product with surface texture could be reached with a large-area epoxy resin mold using hot embossing molding.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ms.24.4.14991