A Simple Method for Rapid Manufacturing Large-area Hot Embossing Rapid Toolings and its Application

The hot embossing process has been frequently used in the microfabrication. Developing a low-cost and simple manufacturing method to fabricate a large-area embossing mold is an important issue. The purpose of this study was to propose a cost-effective method for rapid fabricating large-area hot embossing molds with Aluminum (Al)-filled epoxy resins. The 1:0.75 is the optimal mixture ratio for mixing epoxy resin and recycled Al-filled epoxy resin powders and the optimal thickness for a large-area hot embossing mold is 15 mm. The total manufacturing cost savings about 52.4% and the last process manufacturing cost savings about 61.6% can be obtained using the method proposed in this work. A large-area hot embossing mold has smooth mold surfaces and can be carried out in about 3 days. The fabricated large-area hot embossing mold is rigid enough for short runs of parts using hot embossing molding.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ms.24.2.13879