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6CCVD Research

Fabrication of Plano-Concave Plastic Lens by Novel Injection Molding Using Carbide-Bonded Graphene-Coated Silica Molds

At a Glance

Section titled ā€œAt a Glanceā€
MetadataDetails
Publication Date2019-06-11
JournalJournal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering
AuthorsXiaohua Liu, Lin Zhang, Wenchen Zhou, Tianfeng Zhou, Jianfeng Yu
InstitutionsBeijing Institute of Technology, The Ohio State University
Citations10

Abstract

Section titled ā€œAbstractā€

Injection molding of plastic optical lenses prevails over many other techniques in both efficiency and cost; however, polymer shrinkage during cooling, high level of uneven residual stresses, and refractive index variations have limited its potential use for high precision lens fabrication. In this research, we adopted a newly developed strong graphene network to both plano and convex fused silica mold surfaces and proposed a novel injection molding with graphene-coated fused silica molds. This advanced injection molding process was implemented in the molding of polymer-based plano-concave lenses resulting in reduced polymer shrinkage. In addition, internal residual stresses and refractive index variations were also analyzed and discussed in detail. Meanwhile, as a comparison of conventional injection mold material, aluminum mold inserts with the same shape and size were also diamond machined and then employed to mold the same plano-concave lenses. Finally, a simulation model using moldex3d was utilized to interpret stress distributions of both graphene and aluminum molds and then validated by experiments. The comparison between graphene-coated mold and aluminum mold reveals that the novel injection molding with carbide-bonded graphene-coated fused silica mold inserts is capable of molding high-quality optical lenses with much less shrinkage and residual stresses with a more uniform refractive index distribution.

Tech Support

Section titled ā€œTech Supportā€

Original Source

Section titled ā€œOriginal Sourceā€

References

Section titled ā€œReferencesā€
  1. 2013 - Manufacturing of a Precision 3D Microlens Array on a Steep Curved Substrate by Injection Molding Process [Crossref]
  2. 1991 - Integrated Simulation to Predict Warpage of Injection Molded Parts [Crossref]
  3. 1982 - An Analysis of Thermal Warpage in Injection Molded Flat Parts due to Unbalanced Cooling [Crossref]
  4. 1992 - The Measurement of Thermal Stress Distributions Along the Flow Path in Injection-Molded Flat Plates [Crossref]
  5. 2011 - Replication Characterization in Injection Molding of Microfeatures With High Aspect Ratio: Influence of Layout and Shape Factor [Crossref]
  6. 2000 - Refractive Index of Silica Glass: Influence of Fictive Temperature [Crossref]
  7. 2004 - Refractive Index, Density and Polarizability of Silica Glass With Various Fictive Temperatures [Crossref]
  8. 2008 - Refractive Index Drop Observed After Precision Molding of Optical Elements: A Quantitative Understanding Based on the Tool-Narayanaswamy-Moynihan Model [Crossref]
  9. 2012 - Finite Element Calculation of Refractive Index in Optical Glass Undergoing Viscous Relaxation and Analysis of the Effects of Cooling Rate and Material Properties [Crossref]
  10. 2011 - Effect of Packing Pressure on Refractive Index Variation in Injection Molding of Precision Plastic Optical Lens [Crossref]

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