Injection Molding of Micro and Nanostructured Surfaces From Liquid Silicone Rubber
De Jesus Vega Marisely (1), Mead Joey (1), Barry Carol (1)*
(1) University of Massachusetts Lowell - Massachusetts - USA
Although liquid silicone rubber has very low viscosity, cures rapidly, is biologically inert, and has high temperature resistance, there is limited research on injection molding of microstructures from liquid silicone rubber. This work was an in-depth investigation on the effects of feature dimensions and processing conditions on liquid injection molding of liquid silicone rubber. Tooling contained feature sizes of 100 to 0.1 um with aspect ratios and spacing ratios of 1:1, whereas processing conditions included mold temperature and vulcanization time. Replication (feature definition and depth ratio) was measured using a scanning electron microscopy and was then correlated with processing conditions and tooling feature sizes.