Enterprise Ireland 'Big Ideas' - Michael Gilchrist Micro and Nano

High Volume Manufacturing Of Products With Micro And Nano Scale Features

Micro-injection moulding is widely used to form plastic components cheaply, rapidly and with high precision. Current tools for injection moulding rely on steel for their strength and durability but the problem is that the grain size of metals means that it is difficult to produce tools with features smaller than 10 nano metres

The new metallic-glass based injection moulding process developed at University College Dublin, offers durable tooling that consistently and cheaply replicates micro- and nano-size features in various polymers.

The growing demand from the diagnostics and biomedical industries for miniature plastic components with progressively smaller features will require the high volume production of millimetre to centimetre size components having features with dimensions ranging from the smallest virus to mammalian cells. Depending on the overall complexity of a product, our process will facilitate fast market penetration of high precision products that have features and textured surfaces that are of micron- and sub-micron scale dimensions.

Presenter: Prof. Michael Gilchrist, University College Dublin
Collaborator: Dr. David Browne, University College Dublin

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Big
• Ireland
• Enterprise
• 'Big
• Ideas'
• Michael
• Gilchrist
• Micro
• and
• Nano