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In the last decade the number of applications of micro components has increased steadily. Mass fabricated products either in the form of micro three-dimensional parts or for larger components with micro/sub-micro structured surfaces have been developed, produced and implemented into many products in different sectors. Due to these major developments, polymer micro products have played a primary role due to the possibility to be replicated by means of high throughput processes based on plastic moulding (injection moulding, micro injection moulding, hot embossing).The integration of multiple subcomponents in a single multi-material part, allows the production of enhanced properties microparts.
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Volume production at industrial scale of miniaturised multi-material 3D components or sub-components (polymer-polymer, metal-polymer, metal-metal, polymer-ceramics,...) still offers important challenges to overcome ( until now , the main effort has been focused on the development of high quality and accurate mass production/replication technologies for micro mono-material parts ), challenges not only in terms of precision manufacturing (precision engineering iniaturised components (micro injection moulding and hot-embossing ), although are quite developed technologies, would need an improvement (precision, high throughput,…) and also be part of a process chains which integrates additional technologies in order to be cost efficient and fulfil the requirements the market of microsystem-based products demands (new material combinations with complex geometric forms and increased functionalities).
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Specifically the goals of HINMICO are to develop:
A) Fast and precise µ-replication-assembly processes with new tooling concepts/designs for processing high quality miniaturised multi-material parts and to fabricate:
- 3D multi-material µ-components (sensing actuator, dental implant …) using advanced materials/ sub-components with improved interface designs between them, by µ-Injection Moulding with sub-mm resolution.
B) High-throughput process chain by the integration of the above mentioned µ-replication-assembly and back-end processes for product finishing or a complementary activation step, to fabricate multi-material functional devices:
- Integrated processes based on Micro-replication (over-moulding, in-mould assembly, packaging) utilising modules of e.g.: coating, laser welding, laser direct structuring... ,with the goal to perform the necessary steps for obtaining finished products or provide functionality to m-devices, such as conductive coatings or functionalized packaging;
- High speed and precision handling system for delicate µ-parts (components and sub-components) which covers the core of the integrated processes chain, including the feeding and accurate allocation in mould of in-lay parts (parts/inserts to be over-moulded/assembled/packaged) and the placement of the injected multi-material components on the next stages within the process chain.
C) Global process chains with increased reliability (50%) and fabrication of high quality products.
- This requires on-line process monitoring and innovative on-line process inspection solutions.
D) High added value µ-devices with advanced functionalities:
- The integration of high accuracy replication of multi-material functionalized components and back-end processes for additional functionalities will enable the introduction and combination of properties like enhanced bio-compatibility with drug delivery, conductivity with non-conductive, etc,…the possibilities of the high-throughput integrated technologies for the production of multi-material functional µ-components will be validated through 5 industrial demonstrators in 3 different sectors (health, communications, automotive).
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