Magnetic Medium-Assisted Inverse Bulge Pre-Forming and Deep Drawing Composite Forming Process for Improving Forming Performance of the Cylindrical Parts

Due to the poor plasticity of aluminum alloy at room temperature, it is difficult to form thin-walled and complex curved parts. This paper proposes a composite method of inverse bulge pre-forming deep drawing based on intelligent magnetorheological (MR) fluid materials. Through the experiments and finite element modeling of cylindrical parts with drawing ratios of K1=2.125 and K2=2.25 were carried out under different forming conditions. The effect of soft mold medium on the drawing forming of cylindrical parts was studied. The research results show that the uniformity of the wall thickness of the parts is enhanced after using the soft mold medium. When the inverse bulge height is about 9mm and 5mm, the wall thickness variance of the cylindrical part is 0.0023 and 0.0025 pectively, which is reduced by 86.31% and 82.8% respectively. In the pre-forming stage, as the height of inverse bulge is increased, the maximum equivalent stress moves from the fillet area of the blank holder to the outer surface of the highest point of the bulging area. Taking drawing ratio of K1=2.125 as an example, the circumferential compressive stress in the flange area decreases and is distributed unifomly under the back pressure and soft drawbeads, the radial stress gradient and equivalent stress gradient at the fillet of die are reduced; For cylindrical parts with drawing ratios of K1=2.125 and K2=2.25, when the inverse bulge height is 9mm and 5mm, the forming effect of the part is the best.

Fast Fabrication of Nanostructured Films Using Nanocolloid Lithography and UV Soft Mold Roller Embossing: Effects of Processing Parameters

We report the fabrication of nanofeatured polymeric films using nanosphere lithography and ultraviolet (UV) soft-mold roller embossing and show an illuminative example of their application to solar cells. To prepare the nanofeatured template, polystyrene nanocolloids of two distinct sizes (900 and 300 nm) were overlaid on silicon substrates using a spin coater. A lab-made soft-mold roller embossing device equipped with a UV light source was adopted. A casting method was employed to replicate the nanofeatured template onto polydimethylsiloxane, which was used as the soft mold. During the embossing procedure, the roller was driven by a step motor and compressed the UV-curable resin against the glass substrate to form the nanofeatured layer, which was subsequently cured by UV radiation. Polymer films with nanoscaled features were thus obtained. The influence of distinct processing variables on the reproducibility of the nanofeatured films was explored. The empirical outcomes demonstrate that UV soft-mold roller embossing offers a simple yet potent way of producing nanofeatured films.

Durable Soft Mold for Imprinting of High-Adhesive Resin

A variety of polymer resins have been used to fabricate micro/nano structures via imprint lithography. In addition, with an interest in productivity, there is an increasing demand for the study of the process of easily demolding a cured resin from a mold for continuous fabrication of micro/nanostructures applying imprint lithography to the roll-type equipment. Among these polymer resins, Norland optical adhesive (NOA) in particular is widely used to fabricate micro/nano structure-based functional surfaces because of its shape memory characteristics, biocompatibility, and great optical characteristics. However, the cured NOA is originally used as an epoxy-based adhesive with its high adhesion. NOA has many advantages as a UV-curable adhesive, but as a resin in the imprint process, such adhesion brings a limitation. This high adhesion of cured NOA causes defects in the mold during the demolding process, so it is difficult to apply it to the continuous fabrication process. Here, we present a durable polyurethane acrylate (PUA) soft mold capable of clean demolding of an epoxy-based polymer resin having high adhesion by depositing metal on a surface. Au and Ni were deposited to a thickness of 100 Å by using an E-beam evaporator. To verify the surface characteristics, each metal-deposited soft mold was compared with the previously used soft mold by measuring the contact angle and calculating surface energy. To test a performance of our soft mold, we imprinted nanoline pattern with NOA as a resin using metal-deposited soft mold in roll to roll (R2R) process for more than 240 replications for 90 min of operation time. It is expected that this study can be used for mass production of pattern with epoxy-based patterns required in many fields.

An adaptable soft-mold embossing process for fabricating optically-accessible, microfeature-based culture systems and application toward liver stage antimalarial compound testing

An intrahepatic Plasmodium vivax liver stage schizont and hypnozoite develop in a microfeature-based, 384-well culture system for primary human hepatocytes.