Citation:
U. M. Attia and J. R. Alcock, Evaluating and controlling process variability in micro-injection moulding. International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, Vol.50(5-8), 2010, p533-542
Abstract:
Microsystem technologies require relatively strict quality requirements. This is
because their functionalities are usually dependent on stringent requirements of
dimensions, masses or tolerances. When mass-producing micro-components, e.g.
replication of disposable microfluidic diagnostics devices, the consistency of
the produced components could be significantly affected by process variability.
The variability could be associated with a specific process parameter or could
be a result of process noise. This paper presents a methodology to assess and
minimise process variability in micro-injection moulding, an example of well-
established mass-production techniques for micro-components. A design-of-
experiments approach was implemented, where five process parameters were
investigated for possible effects on the process variability of two components.
The variability was represented by the standard deviation of the replicated part
mass. It was found that melt temperature was a significant source of variability
in part mass for one of the components, whilst the other was affected by
unsystematic variability. Optimisations tools such as response surfaces and
desirability functions were implemented to minimise mass variability by more
than 40%.