Analyses of micro moulding process of the microelements from ceramic powders

The article discusses the issues related to moulding of micro-elements from powder materials and it covers the first stage of the process - injecting to the mould cavity and filling the micro-channels. The material, which constituted the composition of a special thermoplastic binder and ceramic powder, was injected. The binder consisted of paraffin, polyethylene, wax and stearic acid. The nanometer powders from Al2O3 ceramic material with granularity of 660 nm and 135 nm and irregularly shaped particles were used. Different loading of composition by powder were used. The analyses of the impact of injection parameters, such as the mould-s temperature and the temperature of the material, on the quality of filling the micro-mould cavity with the material, were presented. The special moulding insert with micro-channels was made to perform the analyses to that effect with width from 50 to 1000 mm. The presented results of filling the micro-channels indicate considerable influence of the mould's temperature and the cross-section of microchannels. Slight impact of the material's temperature was observed; however, this factor does not have a considerable influence on filling the channel. The obtained information was used in the experiments of injection the samples for bending tests and tensile tests, and the shapes in the form of toothed wheels.