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Article: Through-thickness embossing process for fabrication of three-dimensional thermoplastic parts.(Technical report)
- Article from:
- Polymer Engineering and Science
- Article date:
- December 1, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 Society of Plastics Engineers, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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INTRODUCTION
The standard hot embossing process is designed for imprinting surface features onto polymer substrates [1, 2]. The substrate is relatively thick as compared with the feature size. During the process a heated embossing master, typically a metallic stamp with to-be-replicated features, is pressed against the substrate, either heated or not heated, for feature transfer. Owing to this simplicity in tool and process setup, hot embossing has been widely used in polymer microfabrication. The process, however, is subjected to some process flaws, greatly limiting its capability. Because of the open-die nature of the process, the polymer squeezes out in the ...