Mold surface roughness effects on cavity filling of polymer melt in micro injection molding

Micro injection molding presents many challenges in the injection-molding community. When the dimensions of the part (and thus the cavity of the mold) are small, micro-scale factors such as mold surface roughness may play an important role in the filling of polymer melt. This paper investigates the effects of mold surface roughness on cavity filling of polymer melt in micro injection molding. A disk insert, which has two halves with different surface roughness but with the same roughness mean lines, was used in the investigations. The ratio of flow area of the rougher half with the total flow area of the molded part is used to evaluate the significance of surface roughness effect. The experimental results revealed that mold surface roughness does resist the cavity filling of polymer melt in micro injection molding. For the limited range of injection rate investigated, it is not significant on the surface roughness effects. The increase of mold temperature will decrease surface roughness effects. The change of melt temperature within the range allowed by the process is insignificant for surface roughness effects.